Believe it or not, this is a legit thing. I haven’t done anything much with rocks*, but here’s a good example for soil. If it’s fine grained (smaller than sand) and you can’t see the particles by eye, you can rub some on your teeth:
Buttery texture --> clay
Gritty on the teeth --> silt
Not approved for use on contaminated ground!
I’m a structural engineer, but I work closely with geotechnical engineers and do my best to understand it as well
I usually just say something like “look over there!” and sneakily replace the rock they were tasting to the one I want identified
…tasting? 🤔
h-hey you’re a geologist right? can you uh, identify this c- i mean… rock? for me?
Believe it or not, this is a legit thing. I haven’t done anything much with rocks*, but here’s a good example for soil. If it’s fine grained (smaller than sand) and you can’t see the particles by eye, you can rub some on your teeth:
Buttery texture --> clay Gritty on the teeth --> silt
Not approved for use on contaminated ground!
Rocks have distinct textures on the tongue that helps differentiate them. It’s not really tasting
I bet you warn about Land Wars in Asia, don’t you?
I’ve spent the last two years building up an immunity to garnets in a mica schist.