Quicksand, gravel pits, warning danger, quicksand sign, old quarry, sinking, excavations, waterline, granular material, saturated loose sand, swallow.
With quicksand, the more you struggle in it the faster you will sink. If you just relax, your body will float in it because your body is less dense than the quicksand. It can occur almost anywhere if the right conditions are present. Quicksand is basically just ordinary sand that has been so saturated with water that the friction between sand particles is reduced. The resulting sand is a mushy mixture of sand and water that can no longer support any weight. Quicksand is formed when regular sand, mud or even gravel comes in contact with a flowing water source, usually an underground stream or spring. Under normal conditions the tiny grains in sand or other material will rub up together with enough force, or friction, to support the weight of someone or something on top of it. You can see this when you go to the beach. Even in loose, dry sand your foot only sinks a couple of inches before the friction between the sand grains grows high enough to stop you from going down any deeper. What if the something lessens the friction between the sand particles? Would you go down further? This lessening of the friction is exactly what happens in quicksand. The flowing water moves between the particles of sand and acts as a lubricant to reduce the friction. The grains become suspended in the water and the sand changes to a liquefied state. As long as the water keeps flowing, the quicksand bed will exist. Small patches of quicksand appear at the edge of almost every beach as the incoming waves force seawater in among the sand particles at the waterline. That's why if you stand in the surf you can feel your feet sinking into the sand a little bit more with each new wave. Fortunately, this kind of quicksand is rarely dangerous. The action of the waves only creates a quicksand patch a few inches deep, not enough to trap even a child.
Size: 5184px × 3456px
Location: Gravel pit, Lincolnshire 2013
Photo credit: © Steve Welsh / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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