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Rheology

Liquefaction of quicksand under stress

Nature 437, 635 (29 September 2005) | Download Citation

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Abstract

People or animals caught in quicksand find it very hard to escape1. Here we show that quicksand acts as a trap because it becomes unstable when it is forced to move — first it liquefies, and then it collapses. But a simple sinking test demonstrates that it is impossible for a human to be drawn into quicksand altogether.

A person trapped in salt-lake quicksand is not in any danger of being sucked under completely.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. *Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    • A. Khaldoun
    • , G. H. Wegdam
    •  & Daniel Bonn

  2. †HIMS, University of Amsterdam, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    • E. Eiser

  3. ‡Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75231 Paris, Cedex 5 France

    • Daniel Bonn

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Correspondence to Daniel Bonn.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/437635a

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