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

The fine white marble of Mount Pentelikon used to build the Parthenon, famous for the golden patina it develops with age.

A green-and-white banded metamorphic marble whose wavy mica layers resemble the rings of a sliced onion.

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

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

A soft, white, fine-grained limestone made almost entirely of microscopic marine plankton skeletons.

A soft, fine-grained, porous white limestone made largely of microscopic calcareous plankton skeletons, the rock that forms classic white cliffs.