Quick Sand

Synonyms

Running sand

Definition

A mass or bed of fine sand, as at the mouth of a river or along a seacoast, or in the desert, that consists of smooth rounded grains with little tendency to mutual adherence and that is usually thoroughly saturated with water flowing upward through the voids, forming a soft, shifting, semiliquid, highly mobile mass that yields easily to pressure and tends to suck down and readily swallow heavy objects resting on or touching its surface.

Discussion

According to Yamasaki (2003), quicksand is a mixture of sand and water, or sand and air that looks solid, but becomes unstable when disturbed by any additional stress. In normal sand, grains are packed tightly together to form a rigid mass, with about 25–30% of the space (voids) between the grains filled with air or water. Because many sand grains are elongate rather than spherical, loose packing of the grains can produce sand in which voids make up 30–70% of the mass (Yamasaki, 2003). This arrangement is...