History Main / QuicksandSucks

* Non-Newtonian fluids behave in a similar way; they are so viscous that if a great deal of force is applied to them, they behave like solids or liquids, but if the same force is applied slower and gentler (shear thickening) or faster and more abrupt (shear thinning) the opposite is true. It can be very difficult to get something out from being trapped in a pool of a non-Newtonian fluid. These same properties also explain such phenomena as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz9KnPZWOgs being able to walk on the surface of a pool filled with custard]], [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/physicist-has-figured-out-best-way-get-ketchup-out-bottle-180961641/ hitting the ketchup bottle to be able to pour out what's inside]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP88C-_LgnE a hammer bouncing off corn starch]].

* ''Film/GameraVsBarugon'' has this as one of the threats Keisuke's expedition to New Guinea encounters along the way to the Valley of Rainbows, nearly costing Onodera his life before Keisuke and Kawajiri come to his rescue. Seeing as how [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Onodera repays their compassion]] by letting Kawajiri die to a scorpion sting, then tries to seal Keisuke in the Valley of Rainbows, [[FarmerAndTheViper this sequence comes off as especially ironic.]]

* Soil liquefaction, a rare phenomenon associated with earthquakes, can cause water-saturated sandy ground to temporarily turn so slippery and unstable that it becomes too weak to support buildings' foundations. This can also lead to an interesting inverse of this trope, in which objects underground may float upward, as seen in several earthquakes where manholes and pipes burst out through the ground, breaching pavements and roads damaged in the quake.
* Mont Saint-Michel in France is a tidal island, and [[SandBridgeAtLowTide the ground exposed during low tide]] is known for its rampant patches of deep mud and quicksand. For this reason, tourists are advised to either stick to the causeway or travel with a qualified guide (who will know how to both avoid and escape quicksand), as the intensity and fickleness of the tides creates the drowning hazard mentioned above.
* Morecambe Bay is notorious for its quicksands and unpredictable tides, just imagine being trapped by quicksand as the tide rushes in to drown you! Many people have drowned in Morecambe Bay, from coaches pulled by horses in the 1700's to poor Chinese cocklers in the early 2000's. In fact, the area is so dangerous that there is a proper, appointed by the Queen, "Sand Pilot" to be used by travellers across Morecambe Bay to avoid quicksand and tidal drownings. The worst thing about the Morecambe Bay quicksands is that they ''move about'', meaning that the Sand Pilot has to be a good reader of the sand conditions in front off them.

* As mentioned under the entry for ''Apaches'', slurry pits are another artificial and agricultural example of this trope, being big drums filled with water, decaying plant matter, manure and just about anything else intended to be decomposed by bacteria into fertiliser for use on the fields; here, the main risk to one’s life isn’t just drowning (though that certainly happens, as these pits have a very large capacity, and the material inside isn’t nearly as solid), but from inhaling poisonous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide hydrogen sulfide]] gas, which is produced in large amounts by the bacteria at work breaking down all the organic material in the pit. Just 100 parts per million is enough to paralyse a victim’s olfactory nerve and interfere with their awareness of the danger they’re in. A concentration of 800ppm kills 50% of humans exposed to it for 5 minutes, and once concentrations of the gas hit 1000ppm, it can knock someone out with just a single inhalation. If the toxic gas doesn’t kill you by causing respiratory collapse, you’ll fall unconscious through inhalation of the gas or your own fatigue, then drown in the pit’s contents, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath in a particularly gross way to go.]]

This trope is OlderThanFeudalism.

** In one comic, Spidey is facing Kraven the Hunter in the jungles of Africa. Kraven uses a blowdart to drug Spider-man, making him lose most of his strength and his spider-sense, then tricks him into falling into quicksand.
** This is also a common tactic of spidey villain Sandman, though the fact that he's a man made of sentient sand means he could consciously pull Spidey down in a manner like Hollywood quicksand.

* In ''ComicBook/TraggAndTheSkyGods'' #4, Tragg falls into a tar pit while battling the BeastMan Sabre-Fang.
* Mentioned in ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'' when Kenton notices a patch of loose sand and makes a mention of its danger. Of course, the final sphere he has to acquire to pass his exam sits right in its centre.
* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast1992'': Link, using the Book of Mudora in the Desert of Mystery, reveals a scorpion statue that has the Pendant of Power hang on it. Before Link can approach it, he sinks into the quicksand — and resurfaces on top of a Lanmola. Eep!
* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'': One story has Archie stumble into a pit of quicksand. He stops sinking at around chest height when his feet hit something solid, but it is noted someone shorter than Archie would sink all the way. It turns out that the quicksand was created by a blockage, in this case an antique car, and when Archie, Betty and Jughead remove the blockage, the quicksand is replaced with a scenic pond.

* In TheNineties series ''Series/MissingPersons'', two children have disappeared on the way to school. It turns out they're caught in the grain bin version of this trope, after climbing on top of a railway car and getting stuck in the grain.

In truth, quicksand, while real, isn't terribly common; exerts none of its movie counterpart's mythical "sucking" power; and isn't nearly the StickySituation the movies made it look like. In fact, real quicksand is so dense that you ''can't'' sink in it (with more than half your body). The usual advice for someone who finds themselves caught in deep quicksand is to simply relax and float on their back. Struggling in a panic may actually cause you to drag yourself down instead of up, and survival guides stress the importance of staying still if this starts to happen. While animals and people ''do'' sometimes die in quicksand, it's almost never from drowning — it's from exposure, dehydration or predation after exhausting themselves struggling to get out. However, with the right combination/consistency of sand, clay, water, and salt, it is nearly impossible to escape some quicksand without help.

In truth, quicksand (while real) isn't terribly common; exerts none of its movie counterpart's mythical "sucking" power; and isn't nearly the StickySituation the movies made it look like. In fact, real quicksand is so dense that you ''can't'' sink in it (with more than half your body). The usual advice for someone who finds themselves caught in deep quicksand is to simply relax and float on their back. Struggling in a panic may actually cause you to drag yourself down instead of up, and survival guides stress the importance of staying still if this starts to happen. While animals and people ''do'' sometimes die in quicksand, it's almost never from drowning — it's from exposure, dehydration or predation after exhausting themselves struggling to get out. However, with the right combination/consistency of sand, clay, water, and salt, it is nearly impossible to escape some quicksand without help.

* One cannot discuss TV quicksand without mentioning the 1966 ''Tarzan'' series, which (at this time) doesn't appear to have a tvtropes entry. Any number of heroes and villains were rescued or consumed by African quicksand.

You ''could'' sink if you are weighed down by something you can't remove... but that would happen even in boring old regular water. Indeed, real quicksand requires water, and writers are traditionally unfettered by such technicalities. Fictional quicksand tends to be placed in the desert, or away from a river or any apparent source of water; although a hidden spring could in theory create quicksand in surprising places. In live-action, budget and set-design constraints sometimes lead to a "quicksand pit" barely large enough to hold the actor. Technically speaking, desert quicksand is hand-waved as being very loose sand that looks normal, but is incapable of supporting a large amount of weight.

Although not always strictly "sand", tidal flats (mudflats) have silt and mud which is actually closer to the danger portrayed in fiction as quicksand. The tide regularly refreshes the surface and smooth implies solid to people. Viscosity decreases after an initial stress. More to the point, being a tidal flat, it's a case where people actually ARE at risk of their lives, since tides have this funny way of coming back in after going out. There are tidal flats which have seen so many deaths the locals are tired of watching stupid people die, but it's not wholly clear how much that is getting stuck in one specific spot versus getting trapped some distance from dry ground on slow-to-traverse terrain or attempting to wait on an insecure bit of slightly higher ground as the tide comes in around you.

There is also a hazard in nature called a "predator trap", where an animal gets itself hopelessly stuck in thick, sticky mud or tar and its corpse attracts the attention of multiple carnivores, causing them to become trapped and die of exposure as well — sometimes becoming fossil goldmines. (The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles are a well-known example of one of these fossil troves.)

Quicksand's ability to trap things largely relies on its interesting physical properties, being subject to a phenomenon in common with numerous other non-Newtonian fluids called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shear_thinning shear thinning.]] When at rest, quicksand appears to be very hard, and its viscosity may be such that it can support the weight of lighter objects on it. However, if given sufficient agitation or shock (the margin of which is ''extremely'' narrow), the mixture of water and sand/silt becomes increasingly more elastic as it liquefies, and this is the point where objects begin to sink. As mentioned above, ''this'' is the point where it becomes dangerous to be around quicksand, as once objects have begun to sink, they reach a point where their buoyancy won't bring them down any further, but the surrounding material returns to its rigid state through shear thickening if more force is applied, thus holding things in place and leaving them at the mercy of further danger from the surrounding environment.

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker:'' The planet Parsanna has a field of quicksand, which the heroes inadvertently crash into. However, once they sink it turns out there are caves underneath, and they're fine, aside from the angry cave worm.

* Heloise throws a bunch of [[PandaingToTheAudience pandas]] into a quicksand pit on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. They only approve of the mudbath.

** ''Film/RiseOfSkywalker:'' The planet Parsanna has a field of quicksand, which the heroes inadvertently crash into. However, once they sink it turns out there are caves underneath, and they're fine, aside from the angry cave worm.

* ''Star Wars: Film/TheForceAwakens'' has Finn run to the crashed TIE Fighter to rescue his friend Poe, only for it to be submerged by one of the quicksand pits around the desert. Although the belch sound effect implies that it was ''eaten'' by something.

* ''A Fall of Moondust'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke is one of the better-known pre-Moon landing stories that described Moon dust as being fine enough to amount to quicksand. The plot involves the rescue of a tourist moon-cruiser designed to skim over the moondust, but a moonquake causes it to sink into it instead.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has Jorgen turn the floor of a room into "quicksand" that is a black hole in all but name. Rather than sinking in it, the kids in the room get sucked into the centre at hyper fast speeds and then fall into it. Its appearance is also clearly modelled after a black hole (albeit probably an [[UnrealisticBlackHole unrealistic one]]) as well.

%%* WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldofGumball: This show has many subvertions of it.

* Merlin pulls Gwenyviere out of one in ''Series/{{Merlin1998}}'', making her a [[DamselInDistress Damsel in Distress]]. She was warned to StayOnThePath as well.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': In "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS2E4TilDeath 'Til Death]]", Logan loses one of his workers (and his hat) to the quicksand that covers most of the land he just acquired. Later, while trying to escape from Maggie, he blunders into the quicksand himself and starts being sucked down, only to be pulled out by her. After [[WomanOnFire setting her on fire]], he shoves her into the quicksand and she vanishes beneath the surface. Logan thinks he's seen the last of her, but he's wrong.

* Franchise/{{Archie}}'': One story has Archie stumble into a pit of quicksand. He stops sinking at around chest height when his feet hit something solid, but it is noted someone shorter than Archie would sink all the way. It turns out that the quicksand was created by a blockage, in this case an antique car, and when Archie, Betty and Jughead remove the blockage, the quicksand is replaced with a scenic pond.

* A realistic depiction in ''Film/{{Hidalgo}}''. The Prince is thrown from his horse and ends up neck-deep in a quicksand. He stays there for hours, solemnly waiting to die of thirst. [[spoiler:Frank rescues him, however.]]

%%* Mikan and a friend of hers encounter this in episode 3 of ''Manga/GakuenAlice''.

* One Archie Comics story has Archie stumble into a pit of quicksand. He stops sinking at around chest height when his feet hit something solid, but it is noted someone shorter than Archie would sink all the way. It turns out that the quicksand was created by a blockage, in this case an antique car, and when Archie, Betty and Jughead remove the blockage, the quicksand is replaced with a scenic pond.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' had ''underwater'' quicksand.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'', the gang loses footage of all the paranormal things they witnessed after their camera falls into quicksand.

* {{Downplayed}} in ''Fanfic/SisterFloriana'', where it's presented more realistically: a group of kindergartners caught in it don't find themselves in any danger, but are forced to discard their boots to free themselves.
* One entry into a Miniatures forum about what to do when you have nothing but standard bearers in your army is to plant the standards in a sandtrap; the enemy will waste a lot of time to "avoid the quicksand".

* Averted In ''Film/RobinHood2010'', Lady Marion Loxley, tries to free a ram stuck in the quicksand-like mud on her own without help, but she falls in mud and gets stuck herself. Leading to Robin going to rescue both Marion and ram. Fortunately, Marion is not in any danger of sinking deeper into mud to her death while being stuck in mud, she's just too stuck to free herself and has a hard time getting out.
-->'''Lady Marion Loxley:''' [[TemptingFate "I'm alright. [Marion assures Robin and rest of the peasants near the bog that she is fine and that she does not need help to be rescued from being stuck in the mud as she holds one hand near the mud while raising one hand in the air to try to regain her balance and wave away peasants's concern for her, then as she tries to stand back up, the quicksand-like bottom had caught her when she fell in mud and made a loud splash after she fell in, and now holds her tight, causing Marion to sink low to her shoulders and to realize that she can't move her legs and how she now needs help to be rescued from being stuck in the mud as she is now helpless to do anything on her own at all] Uh, I can’t move me legs (Marion says rather embarrased and annoyed, then turns towards the shore to tell Robin and serfs that she is stuck in mud and needs help to be rescued). I can’t move me legs! (Marion says a little louder this time)."]]