Quicksand deaths
Discussion
yertis said:
Berrow is a bit tasty for quicksand too. Had a bit of a worry their the other day when the whippet took off after the seagulls. Tide comes in a bit quick too - very scary in the dark.
Weston-super-Mare has one of the highest tidal ranges in the World, 2nd or 3rd I think. Useless fact learnt for Geography O level
Saw a great show the other night (in the US) called Myth Busters and Quicksand was one of the myths they tried to bust. They did it by filling a giant silo with fine grain sand, then percolating water through it. They then took turns to stand on top of the sand.
What happened was, when the water was added, the sand did indeed turn "quick" and there was a fair bit of suction to begin with but ultimately they ended up floating about tits-deep in the sand / water solution and had no trouble getting out. The conclusion was that the reason people die in quicksand is not that they get sucked under, but they die from exposure because they can't figure out how to get out of it.
O/T the next epsisode saw the guys trying to kill a V8 by feeding it with bleach, sugar, eggs, coke etc. in the fuel and cooling system. It only died when they eventually put bleach into the oil.
What happened was, when the water was added, the sand did indeed turn "quick" and there was a fair bit of suction to begin with but ultimately they ended up floating about tits-deep in the sand / water solution and had no trouble getting out. The conclusion was that the reason people die in quicksand is not that they get sucked under, but they die from exposure because they can't figure out how to get out of it.
O/T the next epsisode saw the guys trying to kill a V8 by feeding it with bleach, sugar, eggs, coke etc. in the fuel and cooling system. It only died when they eventually put bleach into the oil.
EmmaP said:
EmmaP said:
They used to hold annual bike trials on the beach at Weston-super-Mare.
I reckon there are 'Bike Trials' on the beach every Friday and Saturday night in Weston, local 'bikes' used ... obviously!
There used to be a really big one in mid-Summer.
Don't worry Vixpy - it wasn't wasted
Where I grew up the big horror all boys were warned about (apart from strange men offering sweets) was sink-holes. Apparently the wood near us was full of them, lurking beneath the fallen leaves to carry unwary schoolboys off to subterranean oblivion. Or, in the case of a cow said to have fallen into one, Sturminster Marshall.
Fascination with this phenonmenon had me jumping in every hole I could find for several years, and I got a good Geology A-level. But I never found the sink holes, just a lot of muddy compost in winter and some snakes in the summer.
Fascination with this phenonmenon had me jumping in every hole I could find for several years, and I got a good Geology A-level. But I never found the sink holes, just a lot of muddy compost in winter and some snakes in the summer.
Interestingly i am probably the only person here to have actually been IN the dam stuff.
In my case it wasnt sand tho, it was thick glutenous mud.
I was the saviour, bro was the victim as a kid.
Particular place where water ran down a hillside and collected in a certain spot, leaving the ground above it thoroughly waterlogged, to the extent that if you put a foot in it, you disappeared up to your shoulders.The water collected above it in a puddle as it leaked out.
Not nice and very scary when youre only 9ish.
Did what they tell you not to do tho didnt i? Went an jumped in it meself to grab him before he went subsurface..
Anyways, the action of me jumping in dislodged him and kinda popped him outa there a bit like a cork, only for me to get stuck...ish
Managed to free myself after mucho effort.
You shoulda seen the look on my mums face when we turned up, covered in crap from head to foot... 
edited to add: Dad went back later with a 10 foot pole to check the depth, turned out it was about 8 feet deep....not a nice way to go.
>> Edited by deltaf on Wednesday 27th October 15:04
In my case it wasnt sand tho, it was thick glutenous mud.
I was the saviour, bro was the victim as a kid.
Particular place where water ran down a hillside and collected in a certain spot, leaving the ground above it thoroughly waterlogged, to the extent that if you put a foot in it, you disappeared up to your shoulders.The water collected above it in a puddle as it leaked out.
Not nice and very scary when youre only 9ish.
Did what they tell you not to do tho didnt i? Went an jumped in it meself to grab him before he went subsurface..
Anyways, the action of me jumping in dislodged him and kinda popped him outa there a bit like a cork, only for me to get stuck...ish
Managed to free myself after mucho effort.
You shoulda seen the look on my mums face when we turned up, covered in crap from head to foot...
edited to add: Dad went back later with a 10 foot pole to check the depth, turned out it was about 8 feet deep....not a nice way to go.
>> Edited by deltaf on Wednesday 27th October 15:04
burriana500 said:
vixpy1 said:
EmmaP said:
They used to hold annual bike trials on the beach at Weston-super-Mare.
I reckon there are 'Bike Trials' on the beach every Friday and Saturday night in Weston, local 'bikes' used ... obviously!
There used to be a really big one in mid-Summer.
Don't worry Vixpy - it wasn't wasted
Doh! My sense of humour is just not vulgar enough
joospeed said:Yeah, same. Not nightmares (so its not the same I suppose
I used to have horrible nightmares when i was a lad about quicksand .. the thought still scares the sh1t out of me
) but mega fascination and fear at the very idea! Hence, we tried to build one (but sadly a cat got stuck and drowned in the one we built 
). We eventually kept our own special "swamp clothes" which we wore when we went swamping Oh the fun we had exploring and wallowing in swamps
I dont suppose anyone wants to start a regular swamp meet? Er, ok, maybe not 
The book Papillion (as well as being a Fantastic read) has an incredibly gripping quick sand scene, left me chilled for hours after reading that part!
yertis said:
I think I found my own personal patch of quicksand...
Doesn't everyone have their own rock island, their own little patch of sand
Where the slow waves crawl and your angels fall and you find you can hardly stand
And just when you drown, the tide goes down and you're back on your
Rock Island
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