You know how some words can be so confusing? Well, gneiss is one of them. Gneiss is a type of rock, but not just any rock, it’s a ZEBRA rock. Trippy I know, an animal rock. By the way, it is pronounced like the English word “nice”, no not “niece” as in the opposite of nephew, but “nice” as in, “Nice car dude.” The word Gneiss derives from a German origin and directly means bright or spark alluding to the sparkly appearance from the crystal grains within the rock called schistocity. Below are a couple examples of gneiss rocks showing the most illustrative characteristics of banding, or stripes.
