Description. Deadly dangerous. Cases. Quicksands. Unequal fight with nature

Quicksand is a sinister phenomenon found in many horror films. The inconspicuous smooth surface of the sand suddenly begins to tighten the victim who has stepped on it. The more she tries to break out, the stronger quicksand tighten, eventually absorbing a person with a head. This terrible picture, of course, is more fiction than reality. However, quicksand does exist. Although their depth rarely exceeds several tens of centimeters, they can indeed draw in animals or even humans that have fallen on the surface. Moreover, which coincides with the ideas of films, the sands really tighten the more you try to get out of them.

The nature of quicksand is much simpler than it might seem, and there is no magic in explaining their action. This phenomenon can occur in almost any place where there are necessary factors for this, namely an underground source of water and sand. Quicksand is ordinary sand highly saturated with water to such an extent that the friction between the grains of sand becomes negligible, so that the resulting substance can no longer hold objects on its surface. However, it is important to note that only very fine sand, with a dust-like structure, is suitable. Only he, mixed with water, can create a structure that absorbs matter.

There are several reasons why quicksands form. First is the way out groundwater in the form of springs on the surface of the Earth. If there is a sandy area in this place, then the formation of quicksand is quite possible. Another reason is an earthquake. Water from underground sources can also rise to the surface along the resulting faults. A human cause for the formation of quicksand is also possible. In the event of a break in the water supply or waterlogging of the soil as a result of irrigation, water, mixed with sand, can also create a quick mixture.

If you've managed to find quicksand deep enough to get stuck in, your position is not hopeless anyway. The first thing to do is stop randomly moving your arms and legs, trying to escape from the absorbing mass. Quicksand only absorbs an object when it is moving. Most The best way to get out is to grab onto nearby bushes or hanging tree branches. You can also lean on a wide and strong support, such as a board. Even if nothing of this was nearby, it is still possible to get out. The main thing is that all movements are smooth. Gradually turning over with your hands, you can “swim” in quicksand. Slowly moving towards the shore, sooner or later you will reach a shallow place that will allow you to get out of the trap.

Terrible is Nature in her wrath. In her arsenal - rivers of boiling lava, giant waves tsunamis, devastating earthquakes, bottomless swamps, floods. There is another terrible weapon. These are quicksands, which have long been called "dry swamps".

Quicksand Legends

They scare 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 face. Imagine: a storm, a ship in distress, desperate people. And suddenly, in the distance, the shore is the hope of salvation. With great difficulty, the ship approaches, but the cries of "hurrah" are replaced by exclamations of horror. The ship begins to slowly sink into the coastal sand. People try to save themselves, but, alas, few succeed.

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

Where are the most dangerous places with quicksand?

England
This is the city 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. The second name is "Cemetery of ships". It looks intimidating: the skeletons and sides, randomly scattered along the coast, are covered with sand. Elsewhere, only the tip of the mast can be seen. A gloomy spectacle.

Alaska
This is Tarnagen Fjord.

Jamaica
This is the place where the city of Port Royal once stood, which disappeared in the 17th century. The original version - in 1692 there was an earthquake. The impact of the elements was powerful, the 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 water. He's another victim of 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 can be considered dangerous, as well as big rivers. On the outskirts of deserts, you can also fall into a trap arranged by quicksand.

How is quicksand formed?

If you remember school physics lessons, you can easily find the clue 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? Water will begin to envelop each grain of sand, and a film will form around it. Since there are tiny dust particles on the sand grains, the cementing process begins, in which they take an active part. This is how a completely new substance is formed - viscous and very viscous.

So, in order for ordinary sand to turn into a quick danger, it needs to be wetted.. A bucket of water will not help, a constant source of water is needed, and the larger it is, the more terrible the danger. In coastal places it is a tidal wave. The rest are underground springs. The depth of the source is different. If the mass of sand is large, then the estimated depth can reach forty meters. Moreover, only such water sources that are practically in a vertical position or slightly inclined are suitable for creating fluctuations. On the surface, everything looks quite harmless: sand, here and there pebbles, 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 is the extent of the danger.

And the water at this time works, constantly wetting the layers of sand, provokes its shedding. From above, this process is invisible; even specialists cannot determine it. But it is worth getting here any heavy object, and the trap works. Begins the process of suction, pulling deep.

How to check if there is quicksand in this place?

It's better not to. Don't know the area? Walk around the pleasant sand for bare feet. This measure is desirable everywhere and mandatory for those places where the trap has worked at least once. Usually in such areas there is a rescue service and there are warning signs.

Any chance of getting out of the quicksand?

The answer is unequivocal - yes. And now the big BUT. Only those who know what and how to do and will not be at a loss, that is, will be able not to panic, have a chance.

The actions are simple: lie on your back, try to spread your arms and legs, that is, take as much as possible more space. If you shrink into a ball, then the weight will press on one place, and the body will begin to sink faster. Usually both legs are the first to fall into the trap, sometimes one gets stuck - this can be considered a real success. Lying on your back, arms outstretched, you need to slowly, without sudden movements, pull out your legs. The process can take up to an hour, but be patient and persevere - 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. Row there, moreover, in literally this word. Swim across the sand and best 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, and all other inventions of Nature.

Is life in motion?

Many have heard more than once that in life in no case should you stop. As they say, life is in motion. But is it always so? There is one of the few examples showing that just the state of maximum peace can save a person's life. These are cases of falling into a quagmire or into quicksand. It is necessary to understand in more detail what it is, why they arise and how to get out of them.

If not in life, then in the cinema you have at least once seen how something or someone (a person or an animal) fell into these natural traps. This is actually a very insidious phenomenon of nature. A bog is a swamp that can gradually suck in objects and living creatures that have fallen into it. Why do some swamps simply smear with mud, while others literally "eat" their victims? The point is such a thing as thixotropy. This phenomenon means the property of substances or their mixtures to become more liquid in motion (when exposed to them from the outside) and thicken in a state of rest. Some types of clays and minerals possess such insidious abilities. If they are present in this swamp, then once they get into it, it will be difficult to get out without outside help. A bog is a swamp, often covered with a thick layer of algae, and it may even resemble a lawn.

There is a phenomenon in nature that is even more dangerous than a quagmire. We are more accustomed to hearing such concepts as quarry sand, river sand, construction sand. However, there is another. This is quicksand. Getting out of it is almost impossible. The main reason for the transformation of ordinary sand into quicksand is its excessive saturation with liquid (water) and air. That is why they can "swallow" into themselves what gets into them. When exposed to quicksand (as quicksand is called in another way) of a denser body, the spaces filled with liquid and air begin to decrease. This creates a free space for the fallen victim, which, under its mass, goes deeper and deeper. Such "beaches" tend to dry up from above, creating the appearance of quite ordinary ones. Be careful in places close to large bodies of water with open sandy areas. There may be undercurrents. Another cause of quick traps is earthquakes. After them, small cracks usually appear in the upper layers of the earth's crust, which are not filled when there is no mechanical impact on the surface. When it appears, sand and often what presses on it goes into space.

What to do?

If it so happened that you still found yourself trapped in a bog or quicksand, then you have no choice but to save your life. As mentioned earlier, you need to move as little as possible. If you get into a quagmire, then you need to stop all sorts of jerky floundering. You should try to lie on your back and try to get out with very slow smooth movements and, if possible, call for help. If you happen to be trapped and hit by quicksand, it's best not to move at all here. You should calmly wait for help, since in this case you have much more chances for salvation. At the slightest movement (even with a beating heart!) the insidious grains of sand are activated. It must be said that often sucking substances do not exceed a few meters in depth (and sometimes even less than one). However, in the case of sand, this is hardly able to save. The immersed part of the object (body) is clamped inside like a vise, and it is very difficult to release it on your own. So it’s better not to get into such “trouble” at all and always follow the prohibition signs on the shore.

Quicksand

Warning sign near quicksand

Spreading

Quicksands are located along the shores of seas, lakes and rivers (where ascending sources are usually common), but can also occur far from the coast, both on the plains and in the mountains, in deserts.

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

Epimetheus
Vsevolod Bobrov Prize

See what "Quicksand" is in other dictionaries:

quicksand- quicksand - Topics oil and gas industry Synonyms quicksand EN shifting sand ... Technical Translator's Handbook

quicksand- klampsmėlis statusas T sritis ekologija ir aplinkotyra apibrėžtis Priešvėjinėje kopų pašlaitėje pakilus gruntiniam vandeniui susidarantis smėlžemio plotas, ant kurio užėjus klimpstama. atitikmenys: engl. quick sand vok. Triebsand, m rus. shaky… … Ekologijos terminų aiskinamasis žodynas

Sand- This term has other meanings, see Sand (meanings) ... Wikipedia

Natural sand

Heavy artificial sand- Dunes in Morocco Sand is a sedimentary rock, as well as an artificial material consisting of grains rocks. Very often composed of the almost pure mineral quartz (substance silicon dioxide). The word "sand" is often used in the plural ... ... Wikipedia

Heavy artificial sand- Dunes in Morocco Sand is a sedimentary rock, as well as an artificial material consisting of grains of rocks. Very often composed of the almost pure mineral quartz (substance silicon dioxide). The word "sand" is often used in the plural ... ... Wikipedia

QUICKLY- QUICKLY, oh, her; uch. 1. Same as unsteady (in 1 value) (obsolete). 2. About the soil: boggy, marshy; sucking. A swampy swamp. Z. sand. | noun quickness, and, wives. Dictionary Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

sand- barren (Bryusov); combustible (Kozlov, Pushkin, Khomyakov); yellow-red (Balmont); yellow (Balmont, Frug); evil (Sologub); golden (Lermontov); unsteady (Velichko); quicksand (Serafimovich); dumb (Bryusov); sharp (Andreev); ore yellow (Meln. ... ... Dictionary of epithets

quicksand- ah, her; butch, a, e. \u003d Unsteady (1 sign). Three swamps. Z. sand. ◁ Zybuche, adv. Fluctuation, and; and. Z. soil ... encyclopedic Dictionary

quicksand- ah, her; bu / h, a, e. see also. quickness, quickness = unsteady 1) W ie swamps. Quicksand … Dictionary of many expressions

It should be said right away - the widespread opinion that quicksand can drag a person headlong is an exaggeration. However, they are really dangerous, because it is very difficult to free yourself without outside help. Caught in sand captivity, people died from dehydration, sunburn, drowned during high tides, because they did not have time to rescue them.

How quicksand is formed

It is absolutely impossible to simply, by eye, determine that the place in front of you is deadly. The sun dries the top layer of sand, sometimes some vegetation even appears on it. It seems that this is the most ordinary sand. As a matter of fact, the way it is - ordinary, only very small, like dust.

The main thing in the occurrence of the phenomenon is that the properties of dry and wet sand are different and strongly depend on how much water it contains. Dry sand is free-flowing, since the adhesion forces between individual grains of sand are provided only by the roughness of their surfaces. If the sand is moistened, the adhesion forces will increase many times over. Water covers the grains of sand with a thin film, the forces of surface tension of which cause them to stick together. At the same time, a significant part of the space between individual grains of sand remains filled with air.

If water fills the space between the grains of sand completely, the surface tension forces cease to act. A fluid and viscous water-sand mixture is formed. In fact, the unique properties of quicksand - the ability to rapidly "suck" their victims, and then keep them literally in stone captivity - are explained precisely by its high humidity.

Why is quicksand addictive?

Sand becomes quicksand if there is a fairly powerful underground source under it. A stream of water moving upwards, as it were, “beats up” the sandy surface above it. The mutual arrangement of grains of sand becomes unstable, but still remains. If a person steps on such a surface, the entire structure will collapse under his weight.

The grains of sand move along with the body of the fallen man. The structure of the sand mass is changing. Now the grains of sand are tightly pressed against each other, and the forces of the surface tension of the water film form a concrete frame around his legs. Since there is no air between the grains of sand, any movement creates a rarefied space. Raw sand, which has a high viscosity, does not have time to fill the cavities formed during movement, and the force of atmospheric pressure tends to return the shifting body back. It seems that the sand is sucking in.

Scientists believe that another reason for the formation of quicksand is static charges resulting from the friction of grains of sand. Since they are all of the same name, the cohesion between the grains of sand is weakened.