Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Halite

The natural mineral form of table salt, a soft, water-soluble evaporite that forms perfect cubic crystals and tastes salty.

An evaporite rock of the mineral halite (sodium chloride), the source of common salt, with a distinctive salty taste.

A coarse-grained, speckled intrusive rock built from quartz, feldspar, and mica, forming the bedrock of the continents.

A coarse-grained intrusive rock with a distinctive salt-and-pepper look, the plutonic equivalent of andesite.

An altered granite mottled pink and green from feldspar and epidote, popular as a tough, colorful ornamental rock.

An altered granite of pink feldspar, green epidote and quartz, mottled pink-and-green and popular as a tumbled and carving stone.

A coarse, feldspar-rich sandstone, often pink, that records rapid erosion of granitic source rock under arid conditions.

A prized Idaho jasper known for porcelain-smooth pastel pinks, creams, and greens in soft swirling, orbicular patterns.

A striking rock of green zoisite studded with red-pink ruby crystals and black hornblende, also called anyolite.

The potassium-rich feldspar group - orthoclase, microcline, and sanidine - a major rock-forming mineral often recognized by its salmon-pink color.

A feldspar-rich sandstone, often pink, that points to granitic source rocks eroded quickly in dry or cold climates.