quicksand?

[porgy75]

Who has any idea how to deal with it? I want to learn a lot this year and will be walking around. Do you see it mostly in the bay or also in the ocean areas? How do you know what to look for?

[gjb1969]

thats a new one to me and i have bin fishing a long time i have seen sink holes in the sand very deep mud but never quicksand were have u seen this

[stripercrazy]

Found this....


Date: Mon May 17 22:46:40 1999
Posted By: Alex Barron, Undergraduate, Chemistry, Carleton College
Area of science: Earth Sciences
ID: 926869786.Es
Message:

Quicksand is found in many parts of the US. Places that I am familiar with include New Jersey, the coast of North Carolina, and many areas in the Southeast (particularly Florida). In general, however, quicksand can occur anywhere where two conditions are satisfied: sand and a source of rising water. The sand can come from bedrock, alluvial (river) deposits, glacial deposits, or beaches. The water usually comes from springs or other types of groundwater flow. Basically, you need sufficient hydraulic pressure on the water to drive it up into the sandy deposit. Really flat areas tend not to have quicksand because there isn't sufficient pressure to force the water to form springs while steep areas tend to generate runoff that forms rivers. Quicksand can often be found in areas of rolling topography where the subsurface material can transmit water (limestone and dolostone do this well). As I'm sure you may have read or seen, quicksand can also form in swampy or wet areas, especially if that swamp is fed by springs. Another interesting way that quicksand or even "quicksoil" can form is during earthquakes. In the same way that rising water can agitate sand grains to cause the sand to lose it cohesion, vibrations in an earthquake can shake up wet sand or soil, causing it to become liquid. A particularly vivid example of this is thought to have occurred in Port Royal, Jamaica in 1692 (see the article by Kruszelnicki below). Buildings and people were sucked under the earth as the sandy spit where the town was located liquefied. If you want to know more about quicksand, I suggest you locate the following articles:"Quicksand" by Gerard Matthes in the June 1953 issue of Scientific American, page 97."The Earth Did Swallow Them Up" by Karl Kruszelnicki in the December 21/28th issue of New Scientist pages 27-29.

[voyager35]

thats a new one to me and i have bin fishing a long time i have seen sink holes in the sand very deep mud but never quicksand were have u seen this

gjb, good point. I have seen "quicksand" type sand that sucks you in when walking on some beach areas in North and South Jersey, but not too often. For me the most I run into sand like that is the muck in the bays. You should see it around the marinas at low tide when you have to maneuver your boat. You can sink pretty deeply if you're not careful with all the organic matter built up.

[skinner]

Maybe a gorilla will save you?