Drowning in quicksand full#

Most quicksand can be found next to natural springs, or at the base of alluvial fans. When additional force is applied from the outside, i.e., when someone steps on it, the sand collapses! Where is quicksand found? When the sand collapses into its own void, it is said to become “quick”, hence the name “quicksand”. The arrangement of the grains can be understood as a house of cards, i.e., the space between the cards is greater than the space the cards take up. Loose packing of the grains of sand can produce a void that can extend and fill 30-70% of the mass. A grain of sand usually has more of an elongated shape, rather than a spherical one. The structural property of a grain of sand also plays a crucial role in the difference between normal sand and quicksand. It is believed that, in 525 B.C., 50,000 soldiers of a Persian Army perished in the Thar Desert in the face of a giant sandstorm, and their compelling remains were discovered by archaeologists only a few years ago in the Middle Eastern deserts.Quicksand is a mixture of sand and water, or sand and air, that looks solid. Many people become lost in the face of such storms or receive serious bruises from the flying sand and pebbles, and some even die by drowning in sand. Such storms reduce visibility to almost nil, injure victims, and also bury many souls underneath high piles of sand. Sand storms involve a turbulent, suffocating, cloud of particulate matter blowing at high speeds over vast areas of land in the desert. Sand storms in deserts can be horrendous, and these are responsible for killing large numbers of people and damaging huge areas of property. Forcing oneself out when trapped in quicksand only creates further trouble, consequently pulling a person down further into its clutches. It is, however, possible to escape from quicksands by staying calm instead of panicking, and following certain special tactics that will aid an escape from these death traps. Quicksands occur in areas where the desert sand is saturated with water, thereby creating a semi-liquid state of water which often pulls people down into its lethal depths. However, there is a much more lethal danger awaiting in the desert than all the above mentioned causes, and those are the dangers posed by quicksands, sand storms, and flash floods. All of the above causes claim only a few lives, however, usually doing so in singular incidents. Bites from some of these animals can kill an adult human being in a matter of a few seconds. Deserts are also home to lizards like Gila monster and Mexican bearded lizards, venomous scorpions, deadly spiders, and other potentially harmful animals.

Drowning in quicksand full#

Deserts are also full of venomous creatures in the form of snakes like rattlesnakes, Horned Desert vipers, Inland taipans, and sidewinders. Heat cramps and heat strokes also claim many lives. Many hikers who lose their way, travelers with car breakdowns in the midst of a desert road, and those who are not properly prepared for a desert trip often lose their lives to dehydration in the desert. As a result, deserts claim quite a few lives each year by dehydration.

All deserts have one feature in common, however, and that is that very low precipitation and relatively infinitesimal amounts of surface water are seen. The remaining 80% of deserts might be made up of rocks and pebbles, desert soil, oases, and even ice and snow (such as in Antarctica). Over one-third of the Earth’s landscape is covered by deserts, and only 20% of it is covered by sand.

For most of us, death in a desert means death by dehydration, but little do most know that, in deserts, death by drowning is much more common than death by dehydration. In our imaginations, we usually picture a desert as a vast, hot, and lifeless sandy expanse, without any sight of the most important life-nurturing compound of nature: water. Deserts often invoke a certain kind of picture in our minds' eyes.