Found something on a hike? Answer a few questions — you can skip any you can’t test — and we’ll rank the most likely minerals. Identification works across the minerals with reviewed property data.
Pick the dominant color of a fresh surface. You can pick more than one — or skip if it’s many-colored.
Try the classic field tests: a fingernail is ~2.5, a copper coin ~3.5, a steel nail ~5.5, and window glass ~5.5–6.
Hold it to the light. Metallic looks like polished metal; everything else is non-metallic (glassy, pearly, silky, earthy…).
Drag a corner across an unglazed porcelain plate (the back of a tile works). The powder’s color — the streak — often beats surface color.