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The Myth

THIS MYTH WAS FEATURED IN...
QuicksandEpisode 19: Quicksand, Bathtub Electrocution, MRI Rays and Tattoos

Original air date: 10/20/2004
Myth Title: Killer Quicksand


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  • I read a description by someone who experienced real quicksand:
    it's, from a crosser's perspective, mostly the same as wet sand, not water with sand on it, but
    the reason it's wet is because of an underground spring that jets up, in a chaotic path, through it, therefore
    there is a "wandering" location of water-with-sand-suspended among a large area of wet sand.
    Therefore, one could be walking along on it, & suddenly the "ground" one is walking on isn't ground, anymore, so one drops
    unfortunately, the jet of water will likely have moved on in a half-second or so, so just as one's head drops below "surface" level ( in plain water one would "bounce" down/up/down/up, but ... )
    the water with suspended sand turns back into wet-sand, trapping one in it.
    Apparently, the only defense is to
    a) ball up one's body, so one's legs aren't so deep as to be unremoveable, and
    b) slap/paddle down with one's arms while falling, so one's head doesn't go under, and
    c) make certain you aren't carrying heavy stuff to make getting out impossible.









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Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
amy_c How to get out of quicksand 2 Dec 2 2007, 12:29 AM EST by Lizzil32
amy_c
Thread started: Sep 14 2007, 6:10 PM EDT  Watch
Did anyone else ever fret about this danger as a child or was it just me? Maybe it was all those Tarzan movies my dad made me watch, but I actively worried about quicksand when I was young.

Oh, I also played a lot of Pitfall on Atari as a child. That also fed my fear of quicksand. I just dated myself there...
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