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RE: Licking Rocks for Fun and Profit

in #geology7 years ago

I think native arsenic is less dangerous than many of its compounds, yeah, but I still wouldn't lick it!

Taste actually goes on many rock identification charts already! There's a huge list of diagnostic criteria for rocks and minerals, using everything from optical properties to hardness to chemical reactivity to tests that require electron microscopes and destructive chemical analysis. It's rare you can identify a rock on a single trait alone- many are usually required.