Escaping Quicksand: Your Illustrated Survival Guide

From bears to chameleons, quicksand can be a deadly trap. But not all is lost if you should find yourself in an unfortunate predicament. Here’s your illustrated guide for what to do when faced with this potentially life-threatening situation.

“How to get out of zip ties to chair” is a survival guide that will help you escape quicksand. The article will also give you tips on how to survive in the wild. Read more in detail here: how to get out of zip ties to chair.

Escape quicksand illustrated guide illustration.

Quicksand has had a unique position in our cultural zeitgeist. It was featured in roughly one-third of Hollywood films throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Lawrence of Arabia, which won seven Academy Awards in 1962, has a dramatic sequence in which actor Peter O’Toole sprints over the desert dunes in a futile effort to rescue a small child from quicksand. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I have a dream” speech was made in 1963, and the statement “raise our country from the quicksands of racial injustice” was used to exhort the gathering and the nation. When scientists debated whether landing on the moon was safe, many wise men worried that lunar quicksand may engulf the lunar lander completely, destroying the project. Even the Vietnam War was often referred to as a quagmire or a pit of quicksand.

Kids used to be afraid of quicksand, and adults felt it was a very hazardous real-life event. That isn’t the case any more (unless the kid in question has discovered The Princess Bride, and been watching it over and over). There hasn’t been any investigation into why this is; it’s probable that the concept of quicksand just lost its scare factor as the society became saturated with it, people became numb to the theme, and less and fewer films depicting this hazard were developed. The dread of quicksand was replaced in the 1990s by the fear of zombies and ghosts, which are now the most prevalent sources of fright in our current forms of entertainment. Because we’ve likely hit “peak zombie,” the undead may succumb to the same fate as quicksand in a decade or two, only to be replaced by another wreaker of mayhem. (Listen to this Radiolab program for more more on this fascinating occurrence.)

While quicksand is real, it isn’t nearly as scary as it was often portrayed in Hollywood. First, this natural phenomena can’t occur just anyplace; it necessitates the presence of a subterranean water reservoir, therefore it’s most likely to be found in the Southeast’s swamps/marshes, or the canyon areas of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in the United States. Also, unless you are really panicked, you will not plunge to your death. You’ll probably be alright as long as you walk slowly and grasp the fundamentals of escape methods (which are mentioned above). In truth, the most common cause of death from quicksand is not drowning, but rather failing to escape soon enough and succumbing to the weather. You may be guaranteed that won’t be you if you follow the advice above.

1. Know who your adversary is. Quicksand is any sort of sediment suspended in water, not simply sand. It’s not as scary as it’s made out to be; you won’t drown unless you panic.

2. Take it gently. Struggling/panic causes air pockets in the sand to form, which generates suction, pulling you deeper. Instead of creating suction, slow motions enable you to climb on top of the sand.

 

3. Get rid of the superfluous. Remove your pack if you’re wearing one. It merely adds to your dead weight and may make it more difficult to get out.

4. Untangle your legs. If your feet are trapped, carefully raise them one by one to remove them from the suction.

5. Take a step backwards. You produce more surface area by leaning back and extending your arms, enabling your body to float rather than sink.

6. Get away of here. Move your limbs horizontally over the surface to get out and onto firm ground once you feel your body is free of any suction.

Do you like the illustrations in this guide? Then our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness is for you! Get a copy from Amazon.

Do you like the illustrations in this guide? Purchase the poster!

 

 

Quicksand is a type of sand that has water or mud at the bottom. It can be found in places like rivers and lakes, as well as in some deserts. Quicksand is dangerous because it traps you with no escape. You can’t just walk away from it and expect to survive. Reference: where is quicksand found.

Related Tags

  • how to escape quicksand
  • is quicksand real
  • quicksand