Unlike typical mud, quicksand can appear solid upon first glance. This quicksand then re-solidifies, trapping whatever may have sunk into its depths. The water turns the “sand” into a thick liquid mud that collapses under moving weight. Quicksand is a bit of a misnomer, because it isn't always, well, sand-it’s any mass of sand, clay, or dirt particles that contains trapped water. Try to reach for a branch or person’s hand to pull yourself out.Keep your arms up and out of the quicksand.Make yourself as light as possible-toss your bag, jacket, and shoes.Keep calm and trek on, adventure travelers, because we’ve got the 4-1-1 on what it is, how to avoid it, and what to do if you find yourself sinking in quicksand. It’s nature’s version of pulling the rug out from under you, after all, and it's a rare enough occurrence that can cause even the most seasoned hiker to panic.
When the high tide comes in, you could drown.Though it's not quite as deadly as it appears in movies, quicksand can still throw an unsuspecting hiker for a loop. Bonn suggests that it isn't struggling that can get you into trouble, but getting caught in quicksand near the sea, which is generally where quicksand is found. This may be the origin of the advice to "never struggle if you're caught in quicksand."īut no amount of struggling will send you in over your head. "You can get out using this technique, if you do it slowly and progressively." Origins of the MythĪ person will gradually begin to sink in quicksand, and movement will make the victim sink faster. This creates a space between the legs and the quicksand through which water can flow down to dilate the sand," he explained. "The way to do it is to wriggle your legs around. So how do you get out? Don't ask your friends to tug on you they're likely to pull you "into two pieces if try hard to pull out," said Bonn, a physics professor at the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute at the University of Amsterdam. "I would say there would be some pressure on the chest, but not enough to cause serious trouble." If you do step into quicksand, says study co-author Daniel Bonn, you'll only sink in a little deeper than your waist. The authors estimate that the force needed for someone to pull their foot out of quicksand at a speed of a centimeter a second would be the equivalent of that required to lift a medium-size car. Water has to be introduced into the sand sediment to loosen it, and this requires considerable amounts of force. It's the difficulty of moving this dense sand that causes the problem. The increase is due to the formation of sand sediment, which has a very high viscosity. Difficult to Get Out Ofīut if quicksand becomes less viscous as you struggle, why is it so difficult to escape? The reason, explain the study's authors, is that after its initial liquefaction, quicksand's apparent viscosity (thickness or flow resistance) increases.
But when they shook the container a bit harder, the ball descended to the bottom. When they shook it only a little, the bead stayed floating on top. At rest, the bead remained on the surface, despite aluminum's higher density.īut then scientists started shaking the container. But a piece of aluminum will float on top of quicksand until motion causes the sand to liquefy.ĭuring their study, researchers placed an aluminum bead on top of a container of laboratory-created quicksand. Aluminum, for example, has a density of about 2.7 grams per milliliter. You would descend about up to your waist, but you'd go no further.Įven objects with a higher density than quicksand will float on it-until they move. At that level of density, sinking in quicksand is impossible. But human density is only about 1 gram per milliliter. Quicksand has a density of about 2 grams per milliliter. The reason is that humans just aren't dense enough. This causes a trapped body to sink when it starts to move.īut a person moving around in quicksand will never go all the way under. At rest, quicksand thickens with time, but it remains very sensitive to small variations in stress.Īt higher stresses, quicksand liquefies very quickly, and the higher the stress the more fluid it becomes. Researchers in the Netherlands and France studied quicksand, a combination of fine sand, clay, and salt water. Real quicksand is certainly hard to get out of, but it doesn't suck people under the way it always seems to in the movies.Īccording to a study published in the current issue of the journal Nature, it is impossible for a person immersed in quicksand to be drawn completely under.
You won't sink in-at least not all the way. If stumbling into quicksand ranks on your list of worries, don't panic.
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