Rock & Mineral Encyclopedia

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

Yttrium Aluminum Garnet

A synthetic garnet-structured oxide (YAG) used as a diamond simulant and laser crystal, with no natural counterpart.

A rare black carbon-rich rock from Russia, noted for containing fullerenes and ranging from dull mineralized stone to lustrous noble shungite.

A rare zinc oxide best known for its deep red to orange color, classically from Franklin, New Jersey, and as colorful man-made crystals.

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

A very rare lead-dominant feldspar composition, the lead analogue of anorthite, known largely from synthetic studies and lead-rich environments.

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

The colorless to milky-white variety of beryl, known mineralogically as goshenite and once used to imitate diamond and other gems.