Has anyone ever been trapped in quick sand? Is it really like what you see in movies about actually sinking in it? 
Quick Sand
- Thread starter BlueOvalFitter
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I always wondered if that stuff actually exists.
I feel like quick sand isn't the danger that the tv shows and movies of my youth made it out to be.
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It does around some global rivers etc.
Here is what I learned in the 3rd grade (verbatim):
“A body in a fluid is lighter in weight by an amount equal to that of which it displaces“
That’s buoyancy.
Quick sand is a slurry like fluid coming to surface while drilling a water well sand. The dirt would likely have a 2.6-2.8 SG so when it becomes a slurry (mixed with water) it’s ability to help suspend you is better than water.
You may get stuck but not drown.
Mythbusters and National Geographic showed a special about this. Quicksand does exist, and the more you struggle the worse it gets.
Nat Geo quicksand
Nat Geo quicksand
been around "quick mud" at mines in tailings and leech fields and been stuck at the knees ( basically same stuff)
Seen vehicles sunk to where the doors wont open
And when guys go out to get core samples- they wear harnesses and have an extrication system if they get too stuck
Hard for me to imagine one loose enough to fully engulf an adult but it would take significant time
Seen vehicles sunk to where the doors wont open
And when guys go out to get core samples- they wear harnesses and have an extrication system if they get too stuck
Hard for me to imagine one loose enough to fully engulf an adult but it would take significant time
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All I know is...I spent the first 10 years of my life gingerly walking around, worrying I’d be trapped in quick sand. Lol. And I lived in a city.
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Not exactly quicksand but.....
Blue Mountain Park is a small county owned park in Westchester County NY. The county drained a large pond. The "sludge" (non-scientific term) on the bottom was pretty mucky looking. IIRC it was November so the water in the "sludge" was pretty cold; enough for hypothermia to set in. We get a call of a man and a dog "sinking" in the mud. I was very skeptical of that description. Like soooo many other times in life; I was WRONG! The not so bright guy crossed the drained pond and ended up sinking in. The dog could still float on top. The man struggled and eventually ended up buried up to his waist.
Took fireman about 45 minutes to get him pulled out. He was freezing cold. Was more to the rescue than would seem needed. Was an odd call for sure.
Blue Mountain Park is a small county owned park in Westchester County NY. The county drained a large pond. The "sludge" (non-scientific term) on the bottom was pretty mucky looking. IIRC it was November so the water in the "sludge" was pretty cold; enough for hypothermia to set in. We get a call of a man and a dog "sinking" in the mud. I was very skeptical of that description. Like soooo many other times in life; I was WRONG! The not so bright guy crossed the drained pond and ended up sinking in. The dog could still float on top. The man struggled and eventually ended up buried up to his waist.
Took fireman about 45 minutes to get him pulled out. He was freezing cold. Was more to the rescue than would seem needed. Was an odd call for sure.
You can get into big trouble on the banks of the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. That mud will suck you in up to your waist in a hurry. Been a LOT of shoes lost that way!
Around here, I'd call it more of a quicksand, but it is muddy too. The Intercoastal Waterway is very shallow in a lot of spots, and so is the Mosquito Lagoon, so it is very tempting to wade out for some fishing. Once again, this has led to a lot of lost boots and waders! There are just soft spots under the surface that will be the same as river mud, only sandy like all of Florida.
So yeah, I'd say it's a thing, just not dry sand like in the movies (and commercials). What's in your wallet?
Around here, I'd call it more of a quicksand, but it is muddy too. The Intercoastal Waterway is very shallow in a lot of spots, and so is the Mosquito Lagoon, so it is very tempting to wade out for some fishing. Once again, this has led to a lot of lost boots and waders! There are just soft spots under the surface that will be the same as river mud, only sandy like all of Florida.
So yeah, I'd say it's a thing, just not dry sand like in the movies (and commercials). What's in your wallet?
40 years ago a friend and I were fishing at a local lake. We ran into a area that we could walk across. A short cut. The soil looked very solid. It looked like the cove had filled with silt. My friend stepped off the trail onto it and began sinking down within seconds. I used my fishing pole to pull him out. We were both very shocked at what had happened.
In our country tales of the Western Frontier were exaggerated in dime novels and to keep the labor force from dissipating westward.
Stories of quicksand abounded. Readers were told to not fight it. "Head back and hold your arms out", was the advice.
Skeletons found in such a pose were reported. My uncle was a "Western buff".
Closer to home in a basin adjoining the Hackensack River was the site of several new apartment buildings. All the land was torn up.
On a rainy day with a large hillside's worth of water flowing to the river, my friend walked onto some mud and simply went downward.
You could see the mud just barely holding together. Man, did he scream bloody murder.
Call it "ad hoc" quicksand if you want. "Active mud" or "liquified soil" would do. When mountains release their slides they always say, "liquid rock".
I guess that obviates any question that your house in the way will be no more.
Stories of quicksand abounded. Readers were told to not fight it. "Head back and hold your arms out", was the advice.
Skeletons found in such a pose were reported. My uncle was a "Western buff".
Closer to home in a basin adjoining the Hackensack River was the site of several new apartment buildings. All the land was torn up.
On a rainy day with a large hillside's worth of water flowing to the river, my friend walked onto some mud and simply went downward.
You could see the mud just barely holding together. Man, did he scream bloody murder.
Call it "ad hoc" quicksand if you want. "Active mud" or "liquified soil" would do. When mountains release their slides they always say, "liquid rock".
I guess that obviates any question that your house in the way will be no more.
Not quicksand, but the mention of lost boots got me remembering younger days...
I was out in the corral one day and got so stuck in cow manure that I had to leave my boots and walk out in my socks. That was as fun as you'd imagine.
I was out in the corral one day and got so stuck in cow manure that I had to leave my boots and walk out in my socks. That was as fun as you'd imagine.
I don't mean to hi-jack my own thread, but your reply shook a memory. When JAWS came out in 1975 I was 11. After seeing that movie, my friends and I wouldn't even swim in a regular pool for weeks!
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Agreed!! When I used to swim in my pool as a kid, I'd imagine a trap door opening up and Jaws swimming in my pool. I'd get the heck out of that pool so fast, you wouldn't believe it. Hahaha. So I can relate.I don't mean to hi-jack my own thread, but your reply shook a memory. When JAWS came out in 1975 I was 11. After seeing that movie, my friends and I wouldn't even swim in a regular pool for weeks!
We have the quick mud in my area near along rivers like the Chickahominy River.
In the mud flats up north where the tides change greatly with a rise and fall that is quite high at times there by exposing the creeks or rivers mud bottom... The mud in those places could be like quick mud too. And when the time comes back in... It can easily drown a person stuck in that mud. That can and does happen up there.
I can easily envision that scenario and even the weight of the mud killing or even hypothermia- just not sucking a person down like in the movies
