Quicksand occurs where the sand contains a lot of water, which separates the sand particles and makes the sand partially fluid. When a heavy object presses on the sand surface (eg, your foot), then the excess water is easily squeezed aside; reducing the volume, and making the sand more dense. Hence you sink […]
Written on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 by haydenhurst :: 0 comments to this post
Quicksand occurs where the sand contains a lot of water, which separates the sand particles and makes the sand partially fluid. When a heavy object presses on the sand surface (eg, your foot), then the excess water is easily squeezed aside; reducing the volume, and making the sand more dense. Hence you sink into the sand, which becomes more dense, and grips your leg tightly.
The best places to find true quicksand (as against wet oozy mud) is in mobile river channels. The sand on beaches is generally too well packed from constant wave action, and the quicksand may be only a few inches dep.
However, if a stream channel contains a lot of sand which is constantly being moved downstream, the sand can be very liquid; especially where the sand builds up at a stream junction, or where the sand passes over an obstacle such as a log or rock bar.
If the sand is relatively coarse, about 0.5 - 1mm in size, and well sorted (ie , without a lot of very fine silty material), there will be a lot of pore space between the grains, and the water content can be high, making good quicksand . If the sand is much coarser than 2mm, the proportion of pore space will be much smaller, and the sand will be too dense to form quicksand..
Quicksand is often encountered in sandy-bottomed stream chanels in sandstone country. Although they may appear to be good places to walk (rather than alongside overgrown banks), it can be very tiring walking upstream, if you keep sinking down to your thighs in qucksand. However, for someone following, they will not sink, because the person ahead has already squeezed the excess water out of the sand, making it more dense and easy to walk on.
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