In case of quicksand a study proved that the force needed to pull one leg out of quicksand equals to the force needed to lift a medium sized car 'just to remove one leg'. If the victim attempt to rise his leg upwards to try and escape -According to the laws of physics- as he elevates his leg the space below should be occupied by air or water for his leg to move up. So the sand can -sort of- dissolve and form the gel. However, in the desert one can find quicksand near natural wells or near shallow underground water. That is why quicksand is more around lakes, forests, river valleys or beaches. Thus logically quicksand needs water to develop. So, now imaging this sand completely soaked in water and the grains are no longer in contact with one another.now the sand loses this solid feeling and turns into some sort of 'gel'. So the sand particles can still move against each other causing friction and this tightness and friction gives the sand its solid feeling. The sand that we move on is solid because the air or water molecules intervening are not enough to completely surround each grain of sand. Naturally, the sand is formed of small rough grains that are intervened with air or water molecules. This is the first well known mistake 'quicksand is found in the desert'.Wrong.

That is why I need to clear out some well know mistakes about quicksand.įirst fact.the quicksand is rarely found in the desert !!! After being halve the way there and their bodies are submerged to their chest, someone starts talking (do not ask me why they didn't talk before !) and they start advising the victim not to move at all and that if he struggles he will only sink deeper.Īfrica is rich with quicksand, thus anyone thinking of visiting Africa might be thinking of this problem. In these movies, the victims are usually lost in the desert and can't find water or people and suddenly they start their journey to the center of the earth.

I guess the movie writers and the directors felt scared of the idea of quicksand and they felt obligated to warn people about it and try to give tips of how to save themselves.but unfortunately most of their information and advises are just their imagination and are not entirely correct !?!?! When I was a kid I remember watching these movies with people sinking in the sand.

Quicksand women sinking