You walked in the desert, thoughtful and suddenly found yourself in quicksand, quickly sinking to the bottom. Certain death in the mud? Not really. Quicksand is not even nearly as dangerous as it looks in the movies, although it is quite real. Any sand or silt can temporarily become quivering if sufficiently saturated with water and / or subject to vibrations such as during an earthquake. Here's what to do if you go down.

Steps

Part 1

Freeing legs

Reset everything. If you stepped on with your backpack on or with something heavy in your hands, immediately remove your backpack or throw whatever you are carrying. Since your body is less dense than quicksand, you will not drown completely unless you panic and try to climb out too fiercely, or if you are overwhelmed by something heavy.

• If you can get out of your shoes, do it. Shoes, especially those with flat, stiff soles (like many shoe models), create a vacuum when you try to pull them out of the quicksand. If you know in advance that there is a high probability of getting into quicksand, take off your boots and walk either barefoot or in shoes that can be easily removed.

1. Move horizontally. If you feel stuck, take a couple of quick steps back before the quicksand immobilizes you. It usually takes a few minutes for the mixture to flow, so The best way getting out is not getting bogged down in the sand at all.

   • If your feet are still bogged down, do not take large and abrupt steps in an attempt to free yourself. By taking a big step forward, you can free one foot, but your other foot will sink even deeper, and full release will become extremely difficult.

2. Lie on your back. If your legs are sinking very quickly, sit down and lean back. Increasing your contact area should help you free your legs by eliminating the pressure they create and keeping them afloat. When you feel your legs begin to come loose, roll away from the sands and free yourself from their grip. You will find yourself head over heels in mud, but this is the quickest and safest way to get out.

   Do not hurry. If you are stuck in quicksand, panic movements will only hurt your attempts to get out. Whatever you do, do it slowly. Slow movements prevent quicksand from stirring: vibrations caused by fast movements can turn relatively hard ground into additional quicksand mass.

   • More importantly, quicksand can react completely unpredictably to your movements. If you move slowly, it will be easier for you to stop the unfavorable process and prevent further diving. You will need to be patient. Depending on how much quicksand is around you, it can take a few minutes to several hours to slowly and methodically release it.

   Part 2

   Getting out of deep quicksand

   1. Relax. Quicksand is never deeper than a meter, but if you come across a particularly deep area, then you can quickly dive into the sand up to your waist or chest. If you panic, you can dive deeper, but if you relax, your body's buoyancy will keep you from drowning.

      • Breathe deeply. Deep breathing will not only help you stay calm, it will also increase your buoyancy. Fill your lungs with as much air as possible. You cannot "go to the bottom" if your lungs are full of air.

   2. Lie on your back and swim. If you are hip-deep or higher, lean back. The more you distribute your weight over the surface, the more difficult it will be for you to drown. Swim on your back, releasing your legs slowly and carefully. Once you release them, you can begin to move gently towards a safe area, slowly and smoothly moving backward with hand strokes, as if you were swimming. When you get to the quicksand boundary, you can roll onto solid ground.

      Use a cane. When in a quicksand area, walk with a cane. When you feel your ankles begin to sink, place the pole on the quicksand, horizontally behind you. Lie on your back on a pole. After a couple of minutes, you will reach balance on the quicksand and stop sinking. Push the pole towards the new position; move it under your hips. The pole will prevent your hips from sinking, so you can slowly release one leg first and then the other.

      • Stay on your back with your arms and legs touching the quicksand and use the probing pole. Move slowly on either side along the pole until you reach solid ground.

   3. Take frequent breaks. Getting out of the quicksand can get you tired from work.

Nature is fraught with many dangers. Unfortunately, we sometimes underestimate these dangers. And this neglect leads to tragedy. There are places in nature where it is extremely dangerous to be. Such hazardous areas include quicksand.

What are they? It is a sandy surface with increased mobility. Any object or living thing caught in the quicksand can be pulled inward. The tightening speed is uneven: it can happen in a matter of minutes or over many months. Different peoples have legends and myths associated with quicksand. The insidiousness of quicksand is that outwardly they seem quite safe. There are many legends about quicksand in English folklore, as there are many such dangerous zones in England.

This is not to say that people did not try to fight the quicksand. In the 19th century in England, quicksand was diligently destroyed, filling them with stones, sand and gravel. Therefore, now there is practically no danger of meeting them in those places where people live. However, in some places quicksand still awaits its victims. Surprisingly, there is no unambiguous explanation for this phenomenon yet.

There are various hypotheses, certainly interesting. Russian physicist V. Frolov believes that the phenomenon of quicksand is based on electrical effects, due to which friction between grains of sand decreases and the sand becomes viscous and fluid. Viscosity can spread to a depth of several meters, the soil becomes unstable and sucks in any object or living creature. There is an assumption that the main reason that the sand sucks in different objects, lurks in the form of individual grains of sand. All of them are of the correct spherical shape. That is why any heavy object sinks so easily, passing "through" them.

American scientist J. Clark studied the quicksand phenomenon for a long time. He believes that these sands are mixed with water, therefore they acquired the properties of a liquid medium. Clarke suggests that the ripple is a special state of sand. It can manifest itself in different places if there is exposure to water. For example, if the surface is regularly flooded with water at high tide, or there is an underground river under the surface.

In England, not far from Morkembe Bay, there is a place called Arnside. There are regular hot flashes. At low tide, the water recedes for several kilometers, revealing the bottom of the bay. If you step on sand, which seems to be very stable, you can immediately be pulled downward. It is impossible to escape on your own, so many die.

It is also very dangerous. a nice place- Tarnegen fjord in Alaska. It is also not recommended to be there during low tide. Many people know about an island called Sable. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean 180 kilometers off the coast of Canada. There are many reefs in its vicinity, which are often the cause of shipwrecks. The remains of the wrecked ships on the shore turn out to be covered with sand.

There are many quicksands not only in Alaska, but also in the Sahara. It is known that in the desert whole caravans can go into the sand. Scientists have found that there is an underground river under the Sahara, which is perhaps why the surface is becoming so treacherous.

Quicksand can be dangerous not only for an individual person or animal. Can go underground whole city... This is exactly what happened in 1692 in Jamaica. An entire area of ​​the city of Port Royal was sucked into the quicksand. The city was located on a sandy surface, which is why the tragedy happened. An earthquake struck on June 7, 1692. Historical chronicles tell how some residents of the city immediately fell into the ground, others were sucked up to the knee or to the waist. The earthquake lasted for several minutes. Then the sand immediately turned into a solid mass that held people captive. Many died. In the 19th century, on the site of the lost city, the remains of the walls of the collapsed houses were still visible, and in 1907, after another earthquake, everything went underground.

The phenomenon of quicksand for most people is associated with terrible pictures of a person being pulled into the depths of the abyss.

Many see mysticism in this, tie the influence of cosmic or otherworldly forces. But how does everything really happen and is quicksand really that dangerous? How are they formed and how not to become a victim of this natural phenomenon?

Physical explanation and types of quicksand

The depth of quicksand can be up to several meters, or it can be as small as a few centimeters. From the point of view of physics, the explanation for quicksand is very simple and depends on the ratio and interaction of sand and water.

The grains of sand are enveloped in water, and a film forms around them. There is air between the grains of sand, but with an increase in the amount of water, the air is displaced, and a mixture of sand with water is formed, the properties of which are significantly different from a mixture of sand, water and air.

There are two types of these sands:

1.Wet surface. They are found on the shores of lakes, rivers, seas, where ascending springs are often found. Above may be a thin silt crust formed from a fine fraction of sand.

2. With a dry surface. Found in deserts and rocky areas.

The reason is the water source
A prerequisite for the formation of quicksand is a large source of water, which is located at a depth of several meters, and sometimes several tens of meters.

These sources also provoke shedding of sand. In most cases, they try to escape with great force, rising as close to the surface as possible and enveloping individual grains of sand with water.

Thus, a loose sandy mass impregnated with water is formed, which remains in equilibrium for some time. When any object gets here, the structure collapses, and physical forces try to return the displaced sand back.

Suction occurs. The question arises: can any source of water cause the appearance of quicksand? Such a source can be one that moves in an inclined horizontal direction or almost vertically.

It is sometimes impossible to determine the location of such sand. From above, it looks quite reliable and there is no doubt whether it is possible to move on such a surface. Grass and flowers can grow here, however, if such a sandy formation is found in a rocky area, it is better to bypass it.

It is simply impossible to check whether a nearby water source provoked the appearance of quicksand.

Is it possible to get out?

Statistics show that quicksand tragedies are very common. Why is it so difficult or almost impossible to get out of the whirlpool of sand?

The fact is that it is very viscous, so any sudden movements cause even more opposition, despite the fact that the density of quicksand is only one and a half times greater than the density of water.

You can get out of the element only if you move very smoothly, or even better, try to lie on your back, freeing your legs, and thus, as it were, swim on the sand. In this case, you can keep the balance for a certain time and wait for the arrival of the rescuers.

In response to the harshness, the sand mass seems to harden. Independent attempts to pull out, for example, a leg form a vacuum. A tremendous force arises, pulling the leg back. The force required to lift a leg can be compared to the weight of a car.

In dry sand, everything is different: a person buried even up to his neck can gradually get out of it on his own, because with a slow movement on free place first air enters, and then grains of sand fill the niche. There is no such air in quicksand, and the suspension is comparable in consistency to jelly, and the slowly moving mass does not have time to fill the emerging cavity, forming a vacuum.

Other causes of occurrence

Quicksand occurs most often not in deserts, as many think, but in rocky areas and in areas of frequent tides. A well-known zone with dangerous tides is the Morkembe Bay, in particular the city of Arnside, located in England. At low tide, the bottom dries quickly and becomes a trap.

The tide rises a dozen meters and covers everything that is in the quicksand zone.

Another reason for the appearance of quicksand can be static charges arising from the mutual friction of sand grains. Since they are all charged with the same name, the grip weakens and the surface becomes unstable. Quicksand is found in Canada, the Caribbean, and England. In Alaska, there is a place where an area of ​​treacherous sands stretches for 80 km, and a special rescue service works not far from here in case someone falls into a nature trap.

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Quicksand is a deadly "attraction". The main danger is that they are almost indistinguishable from ordinary sandy areas. This means that if you are traveling, for example, in the desert, where there is often a landscape of the same type without stones and vegetation, then there is a possibility that at some point you will simply start sinking “into the ground”.

Quicksand: what is it

Basically, quicksand is formed in places where underground sources appear or when groundwater approaches the soil. In addition, a condition for their appearance is the presence of sand without clay impurities with a grain diameter of up to 3 mm.

The smallest particles of moisture, mixing with such sand, do not allow air to pass through, and friction between the grains of sand disappears. As a result, grains of sand turn into a semi-liquid mass, a swamp, which outwardly is almost impossible to distinguish from an ordinary desert or beach. It is a viscous mass with tremendous reaction force.

How to spot quicksand

It is difficult to visually detect classic quicksands - they can trap the traveler anywhere along the way. There is a road that takes more than one day, gradually attentiveness dulls, which leads to serious consequences.

Since quicksand is a viscous bog, outwardly it looks like a flat surface with small stationary ripple waves. That is, any flat area could potentially turn out to be impenetrable swamp. It should be noted that sand on the surface of the bog can dry out and sometimes even grass grows on it.

Most often, quicksand can be found along the shores of reservoirs and in the lowlands of hills - where underground sources are likely to reach the surface. To be on the safe side, you need to move slowly, be able to quickly get rid of the backpack and other cargo, as well as probe the way in front of you with a pole or stick.

In its normal, dry state, when poured from vessel to vessel (take an hourglass as an example), sand lets air through. But in the presence of moisture, air does not pass between the grains of sand, and the sand does not spill out, blocking the passage. This property is the basis for the appearance of the bog.

Such a sandy one is characterized by a tremendous resistance force. If a person's leg falls into quicksand, it is necessary to expend the effort of a heavyweight weightlifter to release it, and then provided that his other leg has a reliable point of support and is on a solid surface.

In addition, the impact of a bog can be compared to a seat belt - the sharper the trapped person moves, the more firmly they are bound by the swamp. This is due to the instant "hardening" of quicksand due to the appearance of rarefied air under the released leg. The presence of a discharged space leads to the opposite effect - to tighten the leg even deeper ("collapse").

Quicksand against man

At its core, quicksand can be classified as a type of non-Newtonian fluid with a high content of fine solids (grains of sand). That is why a person, getting into such a place, begins to fall into it, like into water. If at the same time he does not make any sudden movements, then the immersion will stop when the mass of the displaced sand becomes equal to the mass of a person.

What to do if caught in quicksand

There are certain rules of conduct when entering quicksand. Following these rules will allow you to get out of the situation alive.

1. Don't panic! If you start to twitch or make other sharp movements, you will go towards the core of the planet.
2. Fall on your back, flat, preferably on your back - in general, take a horizontal position with your whole body.
3. Try to immediately throw off all unnecessary things - backpack, tent, etc. Life is more important.

You start to make sudden movements - pits will appear, which will continue to be sucked. After the excitement calms down, slowly move, preferably back, in the direction from which you came, since it is not known how far forward the dangerous sands stretch.

Relax your body, imagine lying on your back in the water and relaxing. When moving, the sand should flow gently under the body and to the sides. This is a laborious but effective process. If your lower body does go vertically into the sand, place your torso on a surface and slowly but firmly release your legs.

Interesting and tragic facts about quicksand

Morekembe Bay, England. It has been known since the 15th century, when it was forbidden to walk on the sand at high tide. Annually claimed the lives of up to 150 people. People caught in the quicksand died during the 9-meter high tide, which covered them with their heads.

The Goodwin Shoals at South Foreland, England. Swallowing ships whose remains rise above the sands. The place is known as the "Ship Graveyard". One day the Goodwin shoals swallowed up the lighthouse tower.

Fjord Tarnegen, Alaska. The coast is about 80 km long and consists of quicksand.

Sable Island, Atlantic. Quicksand consumes entire ships after shipwrecks.

Jamaica, the city of Port Royal. Completely drowned in quicksand in 1692. 2000 citizens died. After the earthquake, the soil hardened, so it was initially believed that the city was swallowed up by the "deep sea".

An example of American paratroopers getting into quicksand

Quicksand (quicksand) - sands supersaturated with air (gas or hot vapors, in the desert), moisture from rising springs and, as a result, capable of sucking deep objects, animals and humans falling on them.

Quicksand when at rest, it seems solid, but it tends to suck in objects that are heavier and denser in mass and density. In other words, it is the same as a swamp. The only difference between them is that the swamp is in a permanent liquid environment, and the sand turns into quicksilver with an increase in the level of underwater waters and currents.

Two kinds of quicksand

1. Quicksands with wet surfaces

The wet surface of quicksand is found along the shores of seas, lakes and rivers (where ascending springs are usually common).

Often the surface of such places is composed of a thin crust of silt. Silt is a finer fraction of sand "dusty", which over time, and the friction of fine sand particles turn into silt.

2. Dry quicksand

The dry surface of quicksand is found in arid deserts and in areas where there is no water nearby. Their ripple consists in the increase in underwater rivers and currents, up to the level of the surface of the sandy base. The upper part of the sand remains dry and a person can easily get into it.

The quicksand is not at all bottomless. Usually their depth ranges from a few centimeters to several meters.

Due to the high density of quicksand, a person or animal cannot completely drown in it.

Quicksand is safe in itself, however, due to the fact that it significantly limits the ability to move, a person stuck in it becomes vulnerable to other hazards: high tide, sun exposure, dehydration, and others.

If you get into quicksand, just like in a swamp, you need to try to lie on your back with your arms outstretched wide. It is necessary to get out slowly and smoothly, without making any sudden movements.

However, people are dying in quicksand.

Arnside (England) is located near Morekembe Bay, infamous for its high tides and quicksand, which has killed nearly 150 people since 1990 alone. At low tide, the water here recedes far from coastline, and the exposed sandy bottom dries quickly, creating the illusion great beach, which is actually fraught with mortal danger. People walking on a dry surface are trapped in quicksand, and the fast tide, which rises nine meters, covers the unfortunate ones.

Alaska has the beautiful Tarnegen Fjord, which is 80 km long. In 1988, two tourists, the Dixons, decided to take a ride along the coast at low tide. Three hundred meters from the shore, their car got stuck in the sand. Adeanna got out of the car to push her from behind. Soft mud floated beneath her feet, and the woman was knee-deep in it. The quicksand squeezed her legs, as if in a vice. Jay tried to help his wife, but in three hours he managed to dig out only one leg. When he finally figured out to call someone for help, time was hopelessly lost - the tide had already begun. The rescuers rushed in very quickly. They dived into the icy water and until the last moment tried to free Adeanna's leg, but they could not do anything, and the woman drowned.

Large, heavy objects sometimes sink into quicksand with disastrous consequences.

Ordinary sands become quicksand for another reason: as a result of an earthquake. True, in these cases, their "ripple" persists only for a very short time. In 1692, in Jamaica, quicksand engulfed an entire area of ​​the city of Port Royal, then more than two thousand people died. Port Royal was a very large, wealthy port with the largest slave market. Since 1674, the famous pirate Henry Morgan has been appointed mayor of the city by the appointment of King Charles II of England. However, the site for the construction of the city was chosen very poorly - Port Royal was located on a 16-kilometer sand spit. Its top layer is still saturated with water, and below it is a mixture of gravel, sand and debris.

In the 19th century, a freight train derailed on the Colorado Bridge and plunged into a dry river bed that had become shaky from a recent rainstorm. Railway workers found most of the train, but a steam locomotive weighing 181 tons sank without a trace.

Warning sign near quicksand

In the area of ​​quicksand, warning signs are erected, but this does not always stop people.

Bear Grylls Sahara Quicksand