Honestly as a kid I thought that quicksand would be a way bigger problem in life considering how many TV shows and movies I saw that used it.
But basically, what is it, how is it formed, how common is it, that kind of stuff. I live on the US East coast so (to my knowledge) I’ve never encountered it
In: Planetary Science
Quicksand is a concept, a state, not an actual thing.
When sand is just sitting there, its sand. You step on it, it doesn’t move, doesn’t compress. Quick sand is a state of sand where water can creeped up into the sand and now the sand has a ‘lubricant’ between its grains, water. This makes is much easier for the sand to move out of the way. It changes all the properties of plain sand. It doesn’t suck you in, it it just very difficult to get out of and movement will often cause you to sink more since your density will be just a little higher than sand+water.
A water spring under a sand area can cause this to happen. Water bubbles up, but not enough to make a pond. Top 1″ is still sand, but under that, its a slurry of sand and water.
You can make your own quick sand with just a bucket and a water pump. Mythbusters did a quicksand episode. Google it.
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