From a geotechnical engineering perspective, quicksand isn't a distinct material. My background is geotechnical engineering, not geology - so I spend a lot of time looking at soil mechanics and groundwater movement. I'm having difficulty with the main premise of many of the statements made on this topic. This usefulness is my judge of the value of soils related articles. The article now is not useful to a student in a soils mechanics class from the perspective of technical detail and data. When I have some time I'm going try and dig up sources, and create a section for the geotechnical definition. My understanding of quick sand matches Focht3's statements very close. I'm a Civil Engineer and deal with soil mechanics regularly. This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Geology Wikipedia:WikiProject Geology Template:WikiProject Geology Geology articles If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information. Quicksand is part of WikiProject Geology, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use geology resource. This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. This article has been rated as Start-Class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. Soil Wikipedia:WikiProject Soil Template:WikiProject Soil Soil articles Twenty long seconds later, their heads emerged for an instant before disappearing again.Quicksand is within the scope of WikiProject Soil, which collaborates on Soil and related articles on Wikipedia. Half-way across, the horse and rider hit quicksand and sank below the surface. By now Kettleman was shivering and only semi-conscious, but he insisted on riding through the icy pool. Sensing danger, and with a disposition to think for themselves, they balked. When the party reached a deep pool, the mules refused to enter. Soldiers went ahead to break the ice using the butts of their carbines. He mounted a horse this time, and the party continued up canyon as the cliffs pressed in. Kettleman, in fact, was suffering from hypothermia. Bruised by the thrashing mule, the expedition cook was described as being "stupid from cold and excitement". Mr. The explorers spent half an hour digging out their companion and freeing the animal. Without warning a mule sank belly-deep in quicksand and rolled on its side, trapping the rider. On a bitter cold day they found themselves in the depths of a narrow gorge. In 1872, ten men from the Wheeler Expedition left the Colorado River and rode up the Paria River. The only quicksand fatality I know about occurred on one of the earliest explorations of Paria Canyon. This dispersed my weight and with a few dog-paddle strokes I reached solid ground. And then, going against all instinct for self preservation, I stretched out on top of the liquefied sand as flat as possible. I ditched my pack and leaned slowly forward to break the suction. Checking the impulse to struggle, I remembered some counter-intuitive advice. Suddenly I was knee-deep, and with a lurch sank nearly to my waist. On a backpack trip down Paria Canyon to Lees Ferry I found myself crossing sandbars turning more rubbery with each step. The roof of a jeep is barely visible after being swallowed up by quicksand near Canyon de Chelly I've seen a photo of a Jeep Cherokee caught in quicksand at the same spot. Without my weight the mare made a couple of frantic lunges and got out. ![]() My horse hit a pocket of quicksand in Canyon de Chelly once, and I immediately rolled off into the shallow water. ![]() And animals can die by hypothermia unless they get rescued or struggle free. Hoofed animals bog down easily, sometimes struggling until too exhausted to hold their heads up, then they drown. When animals get trapped the consequences can be fatal. And the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. Usually only a nuisance, quicksand can turn dangerous in an instant. We take for granted the solid ground beneath our feet, and when it suddenly gives way the world is no longer what it appears to be. The chance of death by quicksand triggers a primordial fear. About 130 years later - in the exact same place - commentator Scott Thybony almost became Arizona's second quicksand fatality. One of the state's only known quicksand deaths happened in 1872 in Paria Canyon. But in reality, it's practically unheard of. ![]() "Death by quicksand" has become a cliché in Hollywood Westerns set in Arizona.
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