Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ rocks, minerals, crystals, and gemstones — with properties, formation, colors, hardness, and how to tell them apart.

Zircon

A natural zirconium silicate gem with high brilliance and fire, often confused with the synthetic imitation cubic zirconia.

Clear quartz mined in the Himalayan region, often double-terminated and containing dark hematite or carbon inclusions.

Clear quartz coated with orange-red hematite, giving points a vivid tangerine color, mainly from Brazil.

Clear quartz filled with mineral inclusions that look like underwater gardens, mossy landscapes, or floating scenery.

Clear or smoky quartz threaded with golden to reddish needles of rutile, also poetically called Venus hair stone.

Clear or milky quartz threaded with black needles of tourmaline (schorl), combining quartz clarity with dramatic dark inclusions.

A man-made opalescent glass that glows milky blue in reflected light and warm orange when backlit, often sold as a crystal.

A glassy calcium borosilicate forming wedge-tipped prismatic crystals, usually colorless to pale yellow or pink, sometimes faceted as a gem.

A prized plume agate with rose-pink and red feathery inclusions suspended in clear chalcedony, from the western U.S.

A celebrated plume agate from the Oregon-Idaho border, known for dramatic black, gold, and red plumes in clear chalcedony.

A clear, soft crystalline variety of gypsum that forms glassy or fibrous wands, so soft it can be scratched with a fingernail.