Uh oh, I have a sinking feeling I've walked right into quicksand.

I want to know how you sink in quicksand.

Quicksand has a pretty scary reputation, thanks mostly to movies and TV.

I'm sure you've seen it at some point.

Someone steps i what they think is normal sand and then suddenly sinks to their doom because quicksand swallows them up.

It's not that quicksand wants to eat you.

I mean, it's sand.

It doesn't want anything.

But the reason you sink is because of water saturating the sand and turning it into a sort of fluid like mixture.

Normally sand is solid, right?

But on a micro level, sand is typically elongated instead of spherical.

So more like grains of rice than a lot of mini marbles.

There are spaces between the grains.

Those spaces, or voids, are usually filled by air wate when the conditions are right, like along a riverbank or on a beach.

At low tide, water can flow upward through the sand, causing that sand to become agitated.

And that's how it develops a more fluid like state.

Now, if you step foot on sand, that's just the right mixture of sand and water.

Boom!

You might start to get a little bit stuck, but don't panic.

No, really.

Don't panic.

More movement when you're already in quicksand will cause you to sink even lower and faster, because you're vibrating the sand and shifting the mixture around you.

So if you get stuck in an area where there's rising water, you'll want to get help quickly.

Try to stay calm.

Lean back to increase your surface area and use any nearby objects to help get yourself out.

But don't worry, it will never get bad enoug that someone else will have to dive in with a rope to get you out.

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