28 Beyond Beautiful Minerals And Stones (Photos)

Get ready to over indulge on the world’s most beautiful minerals and stones! When you think of gorgeous natural treasures glistening diamonds and deeply colored gemstones often come to mind. Less common minerals are largely forgotten, but as this list proves they most certainly shouldn’t be.

Diamonds are minerals, the hardest naturally occurring mineral known in existence, and some gemstones fall under the mineral category as well. On the other hand, rocks do not have an identifiable chemical composition since they can be made of minerals and non-minerals.

Technically, a mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic solid substance represented by a chemical formula. Minerals are uniquely beautiful, especially considering there are over 4,900 different types of known minerals. Forget plain blue sapphires and white diamonds, this list represents the most beautiful minerals and stones you have ever seen.

1. Luz Opal With Galaxy Inside

2. Sunset Fire Opal

3. Lightning Ridge Black Opal

4. Opal Fossil

5. The ‘Empress Of Uruguay’

Meet the world’s largest amethyst geode:

6. Ocean Inside Of An Opal

7. Fluorite

8. Bismuth

Looks like the insides of a fancy computer chip, but Bismuth (Bismuthinite) is a naturally occurring chemical element resulting in a white, crystalline, brittle metal with a pink tint. The dense mineral is soft enough to easily incur scratches but is rather dense.

9. Titanium Quartz

10. Rose Quartz Geode

11. Chrysocolla In Malachite

12. Azurite

This particular azurite resembles an abstract blue rose in bloom.

13. Scolecite

14. Watermelon Tourmaline

15. Burmese Tourmaline

16. Bismuth

17. Realgar On Calcite

18. Cobalto Calcite

19. Uvarovite

20. Combination Of Fluorite, Quartz and Pyrite

21. Crocoite

22. Rhodochrosite

In its rare and purest state this mineral is a rose-red, but impure forms come in shades ranging from pink to pale brown.

23. Rhodochrosite

Here is an example of rhodochrosite in its less pure form, still beautiful!

24. Botswana Agate

25. Alexandrite

26. Opalised Ammonite

27. Tourmaline On Quartz With Lepidolite And Cleavelandite Accents

28. Carnelian