Top Ten Signs You Might Be a Geologist

Top Ten Signs You Might Be a Geologist Two Geologists inside a huge Gypsum geode in Almería, Spain

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10. You have ever had to respond "yes" to the question, "What have you got in here, rocks?"



9. You have ever taken a 15-passenger van over "roads" that were really intended only for cattle

Kartchner Cavern was dissolved out of the Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone. | Photo by Brian F. Gootee

8. You have ever found yourself trying to explain to airport security that a rock hammer isn't really a weapon



7. Your rock garden is located inside your house.




6. You have ever hung a picture using a Brunton as a level, and your rock hammer as your hammer.

5. Your collection of beer cans and/or bottles rivals the size of your rock collection.


4. You consider a "recent event" to be anything that has happened in the last hundred thousand years.

3. Your photos include people only for scale and you have more pictures of your rock hammer and lens cap than of your family.

Strata in Salta (Argentina).

2. You have ever been on a field trip that included scheduled stops at a gravel pit and/or a liquor store.

Photo: Houston Geological Society

And the #1 sign you might be a geologist:

1. You have ever uttered the phrase "have you tried licking it" with no sexual connotations involved.

Geology student really getting down to earth by licking a block of salt on a desert playa. Photo: El Camino College

Read also: 10 Reasons Geologists Make Good Partners