The Truth About Quicksand

No, this isn't political, although I suppose when the Democrats get tired of using the word, "quagmire," they can always use "quicksand."

This is about the real thing, the stuff of which Hollywood horror movies have been made. Bjorn Carey reported yesterday in Live Science that quicksand doesn't behave the way the movies have led you to believe.

Instead of being sucked all the way in, quicksand victims will float once they get about waist deep, according to a new study.

Yet while the risk of vanishing has apparently evaporated, escaping the muck is still a tough task: To pull one leg free requires the amount of force needed to lift a small car.

Unfortunately, most people in quicksand (according to the movies anyway) don't have access to a small car.

Quicksand is a mixture of fine sand, clay and saltwater. Once perturbed, the mixture transforms from a loose packing of sand on top of water into a dense, liquid soup. Movement by a victim makes things worse.

"The higher the stress, the more liquid the quicksand becomes, so movement by a trapped body causes it to sink in deeply," study leader Daniel Bonn of the University of Amsterdam writes in the Sept. 29 issue of the journal Nature.

After the mix liquefies, the quicksand splits into a water-rich phase and a sand-rich one. The wet sand sediment becomes so densely packed that it's harder to move than cold molasses. Once the victim's foot becomes stuck in it, the situation is dire.

Not being from the Molasses Belt, I don't really know how hard it is to move, but judging from the tone, it's gotta be tough.

Bonn and his colleagues found, however, that if a you (sic) remain calm, you can actually float your way to safety.

The density of an average human body is about 62 pounds per cubic foot, which is less than quicksand's 125 pounds per cubic foot.

The advice : Stay calm and eventually you'll float. Stretch out on your back to increase your surface area and wait until your legs pop free. Bonn also suggests moving your legs around at this point, to stir in water, which will help you float.

"You have to introduce water into the sand," Bonn said. "And the easiest way to do that is to make it trickle along your leg into the quicksand, by making a circular motion with your leg."

It's so disappointing to find out that Hollywood has been steering us wrong all this time. With all the technical advisors they hire for their films, you'd think somebody might know about quicksand and be able to set them straight. Alas, no.

So we're on our own, and it's the beauty of the internet that allowed me to find this information and offer it as a public service. Because you never know exactly when you might need to know it.