![]() ![]() Should you stumble into quicksand you will sink just as you sink in water. It is, however, possible to perish in quicksand but, just like drowning in vegetable soup, you really have to work at it. And quicksand does not pull its victim down to lethal depths like a deranged Hoover. Unlike the bottomless pits of doom depicted in the movies, most patches of quicksand are only a few inches to several feet deep. OK, that's what it is and where I'll find it but can it make my dog disappear? The desert country of the southwest is such a place and, since there is often no apparent source of water nearby, the unexpected quicksand was a natural to catch the devious fancy of a Hollywood screenwriter. Another good place to find quicksand is in hilly country with abundant caves and underground springs lurking beneath. Good places to find quicksand are on ocean coasts, near sandy creek beds and area of sand over an impervious clay substructure. Quicksand is found most anywhere water and sand mix every day. Although the condition is most familiar in sand, any soil can become "quick." The water is not strong enough, however, to completely disperse the sand and the resultant soupy pool therefore can look like solid ground. Each grain of sand is surrounded by a thin film of water and as the grains lose friction with each other, the solid mass breaks asunder. Beneath the surface is a constant flow of water, typically an underground spring, that agitates the grains of sand, weakening them and lifting the grains apart. Quicksand is not really any special kind of sand, it is actually a condition that is happening to a patch of sand. Just out of the reach of the nearby tree, the struggling outlaw is sucked slowly but surely to his doom in the merciless quagmire. The bad guy takes a misstep in the desert and falls into a puddle of quivering quicksand. His Bad Science column appears regularly on LiveScience.Going for a hike with your dog in the desert has its special challenges, but is quicksand one of them? The image is in all our heads from so many old Westerns. His books, films, and other projects can be found on his website. Birds are the modern version of dinosaurs, though seeing Will Ferrell or Jeff Goldblum running terrified from an approaching pigeon just isn't very dramatic.īenjamin Radford is managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. Most of us see dinosaurs every day, and some people even have them in their homes. Yet scientifically speaking, not all dinosaurs died out. But 65 million years is a long time for giant dinosaurs to live and die without leaving any recent fossils. If dinosaurs had existed up until much more recently - say, the Nixon administration or even Shakespeare's time - the likelihood of a few remaining, lonely huge dinosaurs might be plausible. Many of the lakes said to hide dinosaurs were created only about 10,000 years ago. Of course the fatal flaw in the idea that giant dinosaurs still lurk in remote jungles or cold, deep lakes is that all the evidence suggests they died out about 65 million years ago. There are no photographs or films of the creature, no bones or teeth, no evidence beyond stories and anecdote. ![]() Roy Mackal, a retired University of Chicago biologist who conducted two expeditions in search of the Mokele-Mbembe, believes that the descriptions of the creature suggest "a small sauropod dinosaur."ĭespite more than two dozen searches for the "living dinosaur" as recently as last year, evidence is elusive. Many believe that it lives in caves it digs in riverbanks, and feeds on elephants, hippos, and crocodiles. In the remote jungles of central Africa, native stories tell of a dinosaur-like creature said to be up to 35 feet long, with brownish-gray skin and a long, flexible neck. Many believe that lake and sea monster reports can be "explained" as animals like the plesiosaur (a long-necked aquatic reptile that reached 40 feet in length) or the ichthyosaur (shonisaurus sikanniensis), which were as big as a submarine. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now ![]()
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