1/30/2024 0 Comments Krystal sinks in quicksandWhile quicksand remains the hackneyed convention of bad adventure movies, there's very little to be afraid of in real life. Also, try spreading your arms and legs far apart and leaning over to increase your surface area, which should allow you to float. When you try pulling one foot out of quicksand, you are working against a vacuum left behind by the movement, according to " The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook." The authors of the book advise you to move as slowly as possible in order to reduce viscosity. But, if they relax and try to lay on their back, they can usually float and paddle to safety." "When someone steps in the quicksand, their weight causes them to sink, just as they would if they stepped in a pond," Dumouchelle said. The best thing to do is to make slow movements and bring yourself to the surface, then just lie back. You will only succeed in forcing yourself farther down into the liquid sandpit. The worst thing to do is to thrash around in the sand and move your arms and legs through the mixture. "The weight of the quicksand would certainly make it difficult to move if you were in above your knees." How to Get Unstuck "By the same token, if the quicksand were deep, as in up to your waist, it would be very difficult to extract yourself from a dense slurry, not unlike very wet concrete," said Rick Wooten, senior geologist for Engineering Geology and Geohazards for the North Carolina Geological Survey. However, the sand-to-water ratio of quicksand can vary, causing some quicksand to be less buoyant. Most likely, if you fall in, you will float to the surface. It may be possible to drown in quicksand if you were to fall in over your head and couldn't get your head back above the surface, although it's rare for quicksand to be that deep. Most people who drown in quicksand, or any liquid for that matter, are usually those who panic and begin to make dramatic leg and arm movements. Quicksand is denser than water - it has a density of about 125 pounds per cubic foot (2 g/cm 3) - which means you can float more easily on quicksand than on water. The average human body has a density of 62.4 pounds per cubic foot (1 g/cm 3) and is able to float on water. Liquefaction can cause buildings to sink significantly during earthquakes. When soil liquefies, as with quicksand, it loses strength and behaves like a viscous liquid rather than a solid, according to the Utah Geological Survey. To understand quicksand, you have to understand the process of liquefaction. The vibration plus the water barrier reduces the friction between the sand grains and causes the sand to behave like a fluid. Larry Barron of the New South Wales Geological Survey. Vibration tends to enhance the quickness, so what is reasonably solid initially may become soft and then quick, according to Dr. The liquefied surface loses strength, causing buildings or other objects on that surface to sink or fall over.
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