Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Parian Marble

A pure, translucent white marble from the Greek island of Paros, the preferred stone of ancient sculptors for its waxy glow.

A green ornamental stone, often serpentine-rich marble or verde antique, valued for its rich green color and white veining.

A green, often mottled metamorphic rock formed by the hydration of mantle rocks, soft and waxy with a smooth, slippery feel.

A black-and-white striped chalcedony-quartz rock whose bold zebra-like banding makes it a popular ornamental and lapidary stone.

A black volcanic glass speckled with gray-white cristobalite snowflakes, formed as obsidian begins to crystallize.

A white, porous borate mineral webbed with gray-black veins, widely dyed to imitate turquoise and other stones.

A dark gray-to-black feldspar variety of moonstone that shows blue and white adularescent flash against a smoky body.

A famous white to blue-grey Italian marble from Carrara, prized for centuries by sculptors and architects for its purity and fine grain.

A magnesium carbonate mineral, usually chalky white with grey veining, widely dyed to imitate turquoise and other stones.

A black volcanic glass threaded with delicate grey, swirling lace-like bands of flow lines that show beautifully when polished.

A chalcedony agate with soft, billowing cloud-like masses of gray and white suspended in a translucent body.

A feldspar gem famous for adularescence, a floating blue-white glow that shimmers across the stone like moonlight.

A creamy pink-and-white chalcedony from Madagascar containing flower-like plume inclusions that resemble blossoms suspended in stone.

A white chalcedony filled with green or black dendritic, tree-like mineral inclusions that resemble ferns or moss frozen in stone.