Skip to content
Rock Identify

Encyclopedia

234 rocks, minerals, gems and fossils, each with its photographs, how to tell it apart, and what it has meant to people.

Often openedAmethystObsidianRose quartzTurquoiseMoonstoneOpal

234 specimens6 groups15 meanings

Stone of the dayLapis lazuliSpiritLapis lazuli is a blue metamorphic rock used as a gem material, not a single blue mineral. Its striking colour may be broken by white calcite and small golden pyrite flecks. The mix is visually distinctive, but a uniformly blue photo alone cannot verify material, treatment or origin.Read about itJames St. John · CC BY 2.0

By group

By occasion

A birthday, an anniversary

The stones that lists and traditions have attached to a month or a year of marriage.

Birthstones of the month

    By meaning

    What people have asked stones to stand for

    Each word gathers the stones whose folklore records it; the stories are in the articles.

    The collection

    All specimens

    234 specimens shown

    Igneous rocks

    20

    Sedimentary rocks

    11

    Metamorphic rocks

    10

    Minerals

    110

    Gemstones

    82

    Fossils

    1