How to get out of quicksand. How quicksand works What's at the bottom of quicksand

Quicksand (quicksand) - sands that are oversaturated with air (gas or hot vapors, in the desert), moisture from rising sources and, as a result, capable of sucking into the depths objects, animals and humans that fall on them.

When quicksand is at rest, it seems solid, but it has the property of sucking into itself objects that are heavier and denser in mass and density. In other words, it is the same thing as a swamp. The only difference between them is that the swamp is in a constant liquid environment, and the sand turns into quicksand with an increase in the level of underwater waters and currents.

Two types of quicksand

1. Quicksand with a wet surface

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

Often the surface of such places consists of a thin crust of silt. Silt is a smaller “pulverized” fraction of sand, which over time and friction of small sand particles turns into silt.

2. Quicksand with a dry surface

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

Quicksand is not bottomless at all. Typically 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, but due to the fact that it significantly limits the ability to move, a person stuck in it becomes vulnerable to other dangers: high tides, solar radiation, dehydration, and others.

If you get into quicksand, just like in a swamp, you should try to lie on your back with your arms spread wide. You need to get out slowly and smoothly, without making sudden movements.

However, people are dying in quicksand.

Arnside, England, is located near Morecambe Bay, notorious for its high tides and quicksand, which have killed almost 150 people since 1990 alone. At low tide the water here recedes far from coastline, and the exposed sandy bottom quickly dries out, creating the illusion great beach, which actually conceals mortal danger. People walking on the dry surface are trapped by quicksand, and the fast tide, which rises nine meters, covers the unfortunate people completely.

Alaska has beautiful fjord Tarnagen, which is 80 km long. In 1988, two tourists, the Dixon couple, decided to 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. The soft muddy soil floated under her feet, and the woman got stuck in it up to her knees. The quicksand squeezed her legs as if in a vice. Jay tried to help his wife, but in three hours he only managed to dig out one leg. When he finally decided 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 tried until the last moment to free Adeanna’s leg, but they could not do anything, and the woman drowned.

Large, heavy objects sometimes fall into quicksand with catastrophic consequences.

Ordinary sands become quicksand for another reason: as a result of an earthquake. True, in these cases their “fluctuation” persists only for a very short time. In 1692, in Jamaica, quicksand swallowed up an entire area of the city of Port Royal, killing over two thousand people. Port Royal was a very large, rich port, home to the largest slave market. Since 1674, by appointment of King Charles II of England, the famous pirate Henry Morgan became mayor of the city. However, the location for the construction of the city was chosen extremely poorly - Port Royal was located on a 16-kilometer sand spit. Its top layer is still saturated with water, and below there 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 choppy due to a recent rainstorm. Railway workers found most of the train, but the 181-ton locomotive sank without a trace.

Warning sign near quicksand

Warning signs are placed in the area of quicksand, but this does not always stop people.

Bear Grylls Sahara Quicksand

Quicksand is sand that is oversaturated with water from rising sources; as a result, they are capable of sucking in objects, animals and humans that fall on them. Quicksand is diverse in nature. Due to the thin film of water that envelops the grains of sand, the adhesion between them sharply decreases, and these sands behave almost the same as a liquid: the foreign body continues to sink until the weight of the sand it displaces is equal to the weight of the body itself.

The rate of suction depends on the structure of the sand, the mass and volume of the foreign object and can range from several minutes to several months.

terrible danger

There are many legends and dark stories associated with these sands. The terrible danger lurking beneath the surface of the sand seems so harmless at first glance.

Tarnagen Fjord in Alaska is pretty a nice place, in 1988, two tourists, the Dixon couple, decided to take a ride along the coast at low tide. The car got stuck in the sand. Adrianna Dixon got out of the car and immediately sank into knee-deep sand. The husband tried to help his wife for several hours, but was unable to free her from the trap. The sand was compressed and held the feet like cement. The husband called the rescue team, but the tide had already begun in the fjord. It was not possible to save the woman from sand captivity - the unfortunate woman drowned.

The action of quicksand (how it happens)

Why do people fall into quicksand? It's all about the special structure of the grains of sand. Coming from below water flow beats up a loose pillow of grains of sand, which remains in comparative equilibrium for some time. The weight of a traveler who finds himself in such a place collapses the structure. The grains of sand, being redistributed, begin to move along with the body of the unfortunate person, additionally as if sucking the victim into the layer of soil. After which, the structure of the sand around the victim completely changes - tightly pressed wet grains of sand form a trap due to the force of the surface tension of the water layer.

When trying to pull the leg out, a vacuum of air is formed, which pulls the leg back with enormous force. In order to pull out a leg in a similar situation at a speed of 0.1 m/s, it is necessary to apply a force equal to the force of lifting a medium-sized car. So, if you get into quicksand, it is advised not to make sudden movements, but to try to lie on your back and, with your arms outstretched, wait for help.

The nature of quicksand

To this day, scientists have not been able to fully understand the nature of this dangerous phenomenon. Some researchers believe that suction abilities are determined by the special shape of sand grains. According to one of the versions proposed by Russian physicist V. Frolov, the mechanism of action of quicksand is due to electrical effects, as a result of which the friction between sand grains becomes significantly less and the sand becomes fluid. If the fluidity extends to a depth of several meters, the soil becomes viscous and sucks in any massive body that ends up on it.

Geologist George Clark from the University of Kansas (America) spent many years researching the unique phenomena of sand and came to the conclusion that quicksand is ordinary sand that is mixed with water and has some properties of a liquid medium. According to Clark, volatility is not a natural phenomenon, but the special state of the sand. The latter occurs, for example, on a surface periodically flooded by the tide, or if an underground river flows under a mass of sand.

Typically, quicksand is located in hilly areas where underground water flows often change direction and can rise to the surface or go deeper. When the water flow rises, this does not appear outwardly, although the surface of the earth suddenly becomes very dangerous.

Why you can get out of dry sand

With dry sand, everything is different: even a person buried up to his neck can gradually get out of it on his own, because when moving slowly on free place First, air enters, and then grains of sand begin to fill the niche. There is no such air in quicksand, and the suspension in its consistency can be compared to jelly, and the slowly moving mass will not have time to fill the resulting cavity, forming a vacuum.

There are two types of quicksand

1. With a wet surface. Can be found on the shores of lakes, rivers, seas, where rising springs are often present. There may be a thin crust of silt on top, formed from a fine fraction of sand.

2. With a dry surface. They are found in desert and rocky areas.

On the English sea coasts

Most legends about quicksand originated in Britain on the sea coasts, where they existed for centuries. dangerous areas, dragging a person or animal who has carelessly stepped onto a deceptive surface.

Excerpt from W. Collins’s novel “The Moonstone”:

“Between the two rocks lies the worst quicksand on the whole Yorkshire coast. During the ebb and flow of the tide, something happens in their depths, causing the entire surface of the sands to fluctuate in the most unusual way... Secluded and scary place!.. Not a single boat dares to enter this bay... Even birds fly away from the quicksand. The tide began to rise, and the terrible sand began to tremble. Its brown mass slowly rose, and then it all began to tremble...”

Also in XIX century Most of these dangerous places in England were filled up and destroyed. There are currently no quicksands in densely populated areas.

Happy Rescue

1999 - Arnside (England), in front of his parents' eyes, sand sucked his 4-year-old son up to his waist. Fortunately, the rescue team arrived on time and no tragedy occurred. Arnside is located near Morecambe Bay which is famous for its high tides. At low tide, the water recedes 11 km, exposing the sandy bottom of the bay. Daredevils who dare to step on this sand, which seems like solid ground, are instantly sucked in. The legs are squeezed by a hardened mass, and it is impossible to pull them out without any help. If this is not done in a timely manner, a person will die under the water of the tide (the water rises 9 meters!), as happened with Adrianna Dixon. Over the course of several years, more than 150 people died there.

Beware - quicksand

The ship, located in Atlantic Ocean 180 km from the coast of Canada, near which there are many reefs, which is why ships often crashed there and were thrown ashore. After several months, the sand sucked up the wreckage without leaving a trace. There are a lot of dangerous quicksand in Alaska, the longest of the peninsula's fjords, completely filled with quicksand, 150 km long.

And in the Sahara, one of the driest and most lifeless deserts on Earth, there is quicksand. Entire caravans disappear there without a trace. Nomads from the Tuareg tribe talk about heartbreaking screams that come from underground at night. They believe that these are the groaning souls of people who were swallowed up by the merciless belly of the desert. Relatively not so long ago, Russian scientists made a discovery based on photographs of the earth's surface that were obtained from a satellite - a powerful underground river flows under the desert. It is likely that the waters of this river give some places in the desert the properties of fluidity.

Port Royal tragedy

It is difficult to even roughly estimate the number of victims of the deadly sands; in any case, it exceeds thousands, and possibly tens of thousands. 1692 - in Jamaica, quicksand swallowed up an entire area of the city, then more than 2,000 people died. Port Royal was a very large, rich port, where the largest slave market was located. Since 1674, by appointment of the English monarch Charles II, the legendary pirate was appointed mayor of the city. But the place for the construction of the city was chosen extremely poorly. Port Royal was located on a 16-kilometer sand spit. Its top layer is still saturated with water today, and below there is a mixture of gravel, sand and rock fragments.

1692, June 7 - an earthquake began, and the sand under the city suddenly began to suck in buildings and people. Descriptions of the tragedy have been preserved in the historical chronicle. Some of the city's residents instantly fell into the ground, others were sucked in up to their knees or waist.

After the earthquake ended (it lasted six minutes), the sand instantly turned into a solid mass that resembled cement, which held the people tightly in its vice. People were suffocating, walled up alive in the ground. Most died, unable to get out; their bodies sticking out of the sand were eaten by wild dogs. Back in the 19th century, on the site of the buried city, the remains of the walls of collapsed houses stuck out of the sand. And in 1907, another earthquake occurred, which absorbed these silent evidence of the tragedy.

Goodwin Shoals

The South Foreland headland in England, where the Goodwin Shoals are located, has the grim reputation of being a "ship graveyard." There, on a vast sandbank, there are half-buried ships. Only what remains of the masts and rusty pipes of the former conquerors of the seas stick out from the sand. The sands tenaciously hold onto their victims, and it is almost impossible to save the ships.

1946 - the ship Gelena Modjeska, whose cargo was estimated at three million dollars, fell victim to the Goodwin Sands. On September 12, the ship ran aground off the southern tip of South Foreland. Within four days 8 rescue tugs They tried to save the steamer, but on the 5th day the Helena Modjeska broke in half, and the cargo and the steamer fell victim to the sands.

1954 - in this place the sands swallowed up a lighthouse that warned ships of danger. The tragedy happened so quickly that the arriving helicopter managed to save only one worker from the tower that had almost sunk into the sand.

Nature is terrible in her anger. Its arsenal includes rivers of boiling lava, giant tsunami waves, destructive earthquakes, bottomless swamps of swamps, floods. There is another terrible weapon. These are quicksands, which have long been called “dry swamps”.

Legends of Quicksand

They frighten children and travelers; they are told by old people instead of bedtime stories. Only unlike fictional stories, quicksand is a terrible reality that people living on the coasts most often encounter. Imagine: a storm, a ship in distress, desperate people. And suddenly in the distance there is a shore - hope for salvation. With great difficulty, the ship docks, but the cries of “Hurray” are replaced by cries of horror. The ship begins to slowly sink into the coastal sand. People are trying to escape, but, alas, few succeed.

Such cases, although they were not rare, were still almost all counted. But the number of people who disappeared during walks cannot be counted at all. The sand underfoot suddenly turns into a trap, the person panics, begins to flounder and drowns.

Where are the most dangerous places with quicksand?

England
This is the town of Arnside, located on the coast of Morecambe Bay. The length of the strip of quicksand is 80 (!) meters - a giant trap.

This is the Goodwin Shoals on the South Foreland Cape. The second name is “Ship Graveyard”. It looks terrifying: the skeletons and sides, randomly scattered along the coast, are covered with sand. In other places you can only see the tip of the mast. A grim sight.

Alaska
This is the Tarnagen fjord.

Jamaica
This is the place where the city of Port Royal once stood, which disappeared in the 17th century. The original version is that there was an earthquake in 1692. The impact of the elements was powerful, a tidal wave destroyed the city, and the sea swallowed it. In 1992, scientists were able to prove that the city really drowned, but not in the water. He is another victim of the quicksand.

Caribbean Islands

Coast of Canada
In principle, quicksand can be found anywhere there is water, sand and rocks. That is, the shores of lakes and seas, as well as big rivers. On the outskirts of deserts, you can also fall into a trap created by quicksand.

How are quicksand formed?

If you remember your school physics lessons, you can easily find the answer to the formation of quicksand. The phenomenon of this phenomenon lies in the ratio of the amount of sand and water, as well as their interaction. What does dry (and therefore safe) sand consist of? From countless grains of sand and air. What happens if you add water here? The water will begin to envelop each grain of sand, and a film will form around it. Since there are tiny dust particles on the grains of sand, the cementing process begins, in which they take an active part. This is how a completely new substance is formed - viscous and very viscous.

This means that for ordinary sand to turn into quicksand, it needs to be wet.. A bucket of water will not help, you need a constant source of water, and the larger it is, the greater the danger. In coastal places it is a tidal wave. The rest have underground springs. The depth of the source varies. If the mass of sand is large, then the estimated depth can reach forty meters. Moreover, only water sources that are in an almost vertical position or slightly inclined are suitable for creating fluidity. On the surface everything looks quite harmless: sand, pebbles here and there, a couple of bushes. Without special instruments, it is impossible to determine whether there is water in this place, whether the sand is wet, and what the extent of the danger is.

And the water works at this time, constantly wetting the layers of sand, causing it to crumble. This process is invisible from above; even specialists cannot determine it. But as soon as any heavy object gets here, the trap is triggered. The process of suction begins, being pulled deeper.

How to check if there is quicksand in this place?

It's better not to do this. Don't know the area? Avoid the sand that is pleasant to your bare feet. This measure is desirable everywhere and mandatory for those places where the trap has been triggered at least once. There is usually a rescue service and warning signs in these areas.

Is there a chance to get out of quicksand?

The answer is clear - yes. And now a big BUT. Only those who know what and how to do and do not get confused, that is, manage not to panic, have a chance.

The actions are simple: lie on your back, try to spread your arms and legs, that is, occupy as much as possible more space. If you squeeze into a ball, the weight will put pressure on one place, and the body will begin to sink faster. Usually both legs fall into the trap first, sometimes one gets stuck - this can be considered real luck. Lying on your back, with your arms outstretched, you need to slowly, without sudden movements, pull out your legs. The process may take an hour, but be patient and persistent - your life is worth it. After you free your legs, you need to determine where you came from. There, on that side, is a safe, hard surface. That's where you row, and in the literal sense of the word. Swim on the sand, preferably on your back. You can not? Carefully roll over onto your stomach and, pushing off with your arms and legs, “swim.” And remember: any sudden movement and you will be pulled into the sand.

Quicksand - unique phenomenon, as, indeed, all other inventions of Nature.

Quicksand

Quicksand found in different areas globe, have always caused fear in people. It is generally accepted that this sand, which looks no different from the usual sand nearby, is fraught with a mortal danger for anyone who stands on it. There are many stories about how these sands sucked in their victims until not a trace remained of them. However, in reality, quicksand does not have such power. If you have an idea of what it is and how to behave correctly, then quicksand will not cause any harm.

Typically, quicksand, or quicksand, appears near the mouths of large rivers and on gently sloping banks. These sands are formed due to the fact that underneath there is a dense layer of clay that does not allow moisture to penetrate into the earth. This leads to the accumulation of rain and river water in the sand. The accumulating water liquefies the round grains of quicksand, and they seem to float in it. That is why they are not able to hold heavy objects on the surface.

Contrary to popular belief, people who fall on quicksand do not drown in it. Since quicksand contains a lot of moisture, you can swim in it like in water. It is also important that quicksand is denser than water, and therefore it is easier to float on the surface.

If you ever find yourself in quicksand, remember to move fairly slowly. This allows the sand to flow around your body, just as it does when you swim in water. In this case, you do not have to fear for your life.

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While walking somewhere in nature, enjoying the charm of flowering plants, listening to birds whistling cheerful songs, you can accidentally find yourself trapped in quicksand. But we should immediately warn you that everything is not as scary as shown in some films of the horror genre. Yes, of course, it is better to avoid them, but at the same time you should not be afraid. There are several consistent rules, knowledge of which will help you avoid such situations.

What is quicksand anyway? This is a really interesting but not at all peculiar mixture consisting of fine-grained material, clay and water (in desert places- a mixture of sand and air). It looks solid, but becomes unstable when pressure is applied to its surface. It forms when water oversaturates such soil. Ordinary, naturally occurring sand (quarry, mountain, sea) consists of densely packed grains that form a rigid mass (approximately 25 to 30 percent of the space between the grains is filled with water or air). Since many sand grains are elongated, separation can occur, resulting in voids that make up 30 to 70 percent of the mass. This mechanism is similar to a house of cards, where the space between the cards is much larger than the space occupied by them. The liquid helps create liquefied soil that is unable to withstand the weight load.

Quicksand can form in standing and flowing water that flows upward (as in artesian springs). Water jets directed upward resist and slow down soil particles. Saturated sediments may look quite solid, but a little on the surface initiates liquefaction. This causes the sand to form into a slurry and lose strength. The amortized water creates quicksand, liquefied sediment, and a spongy, liquid-like soil texture. Objects entering such an environment drop to a level at which their weight is equal to the weight of the displaced mixture (from soil and water). Liquefaction is a special case of the phenomenon under consideration. Thus, in the event of an earthquake, the pore pressure in shallow, wet, liquefied soil immediately increases and loses strength, which leads to the collapse of buildings and other objects located on its surface.

Quicksand forms where natural springs exist, in swampy or wet areas, near rivers, on beaches, although most often they are not easy to identify. If you suddenly hit them, they retreat quickly and gently, reacting with an interval of a couple of seconds. They are, that is, at rest they represent a solid substance (gel-like form), but the slightest impact on them causes a sharp decrease in viscosity. They are also found in deserts, but extremely rarely, where sand deposits occur, for example, on dunes. But the reduction is limited to a few centimeters, because as soon as the air in the voids between the sand grains is removed (and this happens quickly), they become denser again.

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