Rockhounding & mineral ID
Learn the simple tests geologists use — streak, hardness, luster — and finally answer it yourself: what’s this rock?
Start here · Field Guide
A step-by-step method for identifying rocks and minerals at home using the streak test, Mohs hardness scale, luster, and density — no lab equipment required.
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Field Guide
New to rock collecting? Here's the beginner's field kit, the laws about where you can legally collect, the etiquette that keeps sites open, and the easy-to-find rocks that make a great first haul.
3 min read
Crystals
Crystals are identified by their shape, symmetry, and physical properties — not their color. Learn the seven crystal systems, the habit vocabulary collectors use, and the quick tests that separate real crystals from glass and dyed fakes.
3 min read
Minerals
Minerals are identified by a short checklist of physical properties — hardness, streak, luster, color, cleavage, crystal form, and a few special tests. Learn to run all seven and narrow any specimen to a name.
3 min read
Methods
Hardness is the single most useful clue for identifying a rock or mineral. Learn the Mohs scale from talc to diamond and how to test it with a fingernail, a coin, and a steel knife — no lab required.
3 min read
Minerals
Is that beach pebble an agate? Learn the flashlight translucency test, how to read agate banding, and how to tell agate from jasper, chert, and plain chalcedony.
4 min read
Minerals
Gold and pyrite have fooled prospectors for centuries. Learn the streak, hardness, shape, and sun tests that separate real gold from fool's gold in minutes — no chemicals required.
3 min read
Field Guide
Geodes hide crystal-lined cavities inside plain round rocks. Learn the weight test, the sound test, and the surface clues that reveal a geode — plus the right way to open one.
3 min read
Look-alikes
That glossy black 'obsidian' from a beach or backyard is often furnace slag. Here's how to tell natural volcanic glass from man-made glass using bubbles, color, location, and fracture.
3 min read
Minerals
Quartz is the mineral you've already found. Learn to confirm it with the glass-scratch test, spot its six-sided crystals, and name its varieties — amethyst, rose, smoky, and milky quartz.
3 min read
Meteorites
Learn how to identify a real meteorite — fusion crust, regmaglypts, the magnet test, and density — and how to rule out slag, hematite, and magnetite, the three most common impostors.
4 min read