Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Emerald

The green chromium- and vanadium-colored variety of beryl, one of the four classic precious gemstones renowned for its rich green color.

A richly saturated green variety of elbaite tourmaline whose color rivals emerald, colored by trace iron, chromium, or vanadium.

Light green beryl colored mainly by iron, distinguished from emerald, which owes its deeper green to chromium or vanadium.

Green-tinted volcanic glass; some is naturally colored by trace iron, but vivid emerald-green pieces are usually manufactured glass.

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

An intensely green tourmaline colored by chromium and vanadium, prized for its vivid emerald-like color from East Africa.

An old name for a dull leek-green variety of quartz or chalcedony colored by green mineral inclusions, historically called mother of emerald.

The classic green gem variety of elbaite tourmaline, ranging from bright grass-green to deep forest tones colored by iron or chromium.

A vivid green copper carbonate mineral famous for swirling concentric bands, used as an ore of copper and an ornamental gemstone.

A vivid green chromium-bearing diopside, an affordable emerald-like gem mined largely in Siberia.

A group of silicate gemstones best known for deep red but spanning nearly every color, including green tsavorite and orange spessartine.