Can you die in quicksand?

Question

Can you die in quicksand?

Answer 1

You can, but 90% of quicksand is only 5 feet deep or less. The other 10% is over your head. If you float on your back it was my understanding you won't go under and suffocate/drown.

Answer 2

You can drown.

Quicksand is a wet sand and salt solution in a clay like basion.  The sand is in a water solution and the basion forms a kind of swimming pool.  So yes, you can easily drown in quicksand.  Just like you can drown in jello or slime or anyother fluid like substance that can fill your lungs and replace the air you would normally be breathing.

Of course you can also float one quicksand if you keep your head and don't panic, just like you can float on water.

The problem is that the adhesive qualites of quicksand makes it extremly hard to get yourself out of it once you get into it.  Just pulling out your foot could requrie the same force as needed to move a medium sized car.

According to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksand

"Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter (such as sand or silt), clay, and salt water. The origin of the name refers to "quick" in the older meaning of "alive" rather than "fast," and is thus similar to the origin of the term quicksilver for mercury.

Basically, water circulation underground can focus in an area with just the right mixture of fine sands and other materials such as clay. The water moves up and then down slowly in a convection-like manner throughout a column of sand under optimal conditions, and the sand remains a generally solid mass. This lubricates the sand particles and renders them unable to support any significant weight, since they move around with very little friction, behaving more like a liquid when exposed to stress. Since the water does not usually go all the way up through the sand, the sand above does not appear to move at all, and can support leaves and other small debris, making quicksand difficult to distinguish from the surrounding environment.

Quicksand is a non-Newtonian fluid: when undisturbed it often appears to be solid ("gel" form), but a minor (less than 1%) change in the stress on the quicksand will cause a sudden decrease in its viscosity ("sol" form).

After the initial perturbation—such as a person attempting to walk on it—the water and sand in the quicksand separate and dense regions of sand sediment form; it is because of the formation of these high volume fraction regions that the viscosity of the quicksand seems to suddenly increase. If a person steps in it they will start to sink. In order to move within the quicksand, a person or object must apply sufficient pressure on the compacted sand to re-introduce enough water to liquefy it. The forces required to do this are quite large: to remove a foot from quicksand at a speed of one centimeter per second would require the same amount of force as "that needed to lift a medium-sized car.""