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Quicksand

Ron Miller

Ron Miller

Well-known member
I had a person in England on a search and rescue team ask me if an airboat would work work in an area that is or is like like quicksand.. I told him that I could not honestly answer that question BUT I knew ware I could go to get an answer for him.... So now who can help me with this one?
 
Ron, I'm far from a geologist but here's everything I know about quicksand.
Quicksand is a pool of very fine sand that is saturated at a constant level by either ground water or an underground spring.
Because it's level remains so constant, plants and grasses will often cover it and give it the appearance of solid ground.

I don't see why an airboat shouldn't be able to run on it, but man, if you ever got stuck in it you sure wouldn't
wanna step out of the boat ........ :lol:
 
all i know about quick sand is in the really old tarsan flicks he was always pulling some poor great white hunter out of it . but if any one knows where some is lets try it
 
Plum, find us some and we'll take a few Liberals for an airboat ride.

"OK boys, this is that spot where y'all gotta get out and push." :lol:
 
Mythbusters on the Discovery channel pointed out that because of the suspended sand is much more DENSE than water, and therefore things (including humans) are more buoyant in it.

I've noticed that same thing - when I found some walking a sandy stream bed. It was a little spring - not pushing enough water to blow the sand out - but enough to keep it suspended. I thought I was dead - but I never did touch bottom, and floated upright well below my armpits. I just turned on my side and climbed out.

So a boat would be more buoyant too - if the patch was large enough. I'll bet you'd never know you were passing over it.

matt.
 
I was scoop netting some critters for my outdoor aquarium in Lake Howell Creek in Seminole County. The stream water was about 4 inches deep, and the quicksand hole was only about 4 feet wide. One step in and I fell forward. It did not look any different than the ordinary stream bottom - I THINK... I was not really paying such close attention to where I was putting my feet.

I'd call it suburban - Casselberry/Tuskawilla part of Orlando.

It was behind the home where I had been installing some granite counter tops - and the homeowner had a screaming, annoying little kid that bugged me the whole time. So on the last day of the install, I told her about the quicksand in their back yard - I'll bet that poor kid never got to play outside! HA, payback you little brat. :twisted:

matt.
 
thats wild ! gotta watch where your walkin huh? that mustuv been a big PUCKER FACTOR.... :shock:
 
LOL I was scared! Like I said - I thought I was dead. I thought it was "and that's the story of matt" in that instant. But I had my pole net and I stopped my fall (was in control) by the time I was up to my belly. After I realized I was not going under I felt for the bottom.

Scared me so much, I've not walked a sandy creek bed alone since.

matt.
 
is that the line you use on the ladies to get them to walk down by the water with ya? 8) 8) 8)
 
is that the line you use on the ladies to get them to walk down by the water with ya?
Click to expand...

Hey TRex that just might work! ....careful now.... there is quicksand known to these parts so just let me feel the bottom! :shock:
 
Thanks all -- I was thinking along these lines but never had the pleasure of experiencing quicksand. I will let that guy in England know that an airboat should be a safe means of traveling over swamps with a lot of quicksand but if he gets stuck to call a sky hook.
 
When I was about 13 or 14 I was duck hunting with my cousin and
uncle, on the east side of the ST. Johns north of SR 520 back in the
late seventies we would just pull the kicker boat up on the bank
and walk the fields jump shooting ducks from the streams and puddles.
anyhow I waded across one of those muck bottem streams, about
four feet wide and went to my arm pits and could not get out no matter
how hard I tried after struggling for a few minuites with no success
I noticed a dead cow about thirty feet down stream I guess she could'nt
get out either. well after finding that panic was no good I remembered
that three shots was some sort of SOS signal, so I popped off three
and waited, after all my uncle and cousin were not too far away ( I hoped )
after about an hour, and a box and a half of shells my cousin came strolling
up ( he thought I had found the honey hole ) I emptied my shotgun he grabbed
the stock and with great difficulty I came out. the dead cow freaked me out
a bit and I think I may have crapped myself, but with that black, stinkie muck
in every nook and cranny I'm not sure. anyhow the talk about quicksand just
floated that one out of the memory banks.
 
K-mac, a lot of the prehistoric fossils dating from the time of the dinosaurs were critters that had first been caught in quicksand.
It's nothing to mess with if you're alone.

Good thread, Ron.
 
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