Jamie Acord was strolling on a Maine beach with her partner this past weekend, when she all of a sudden sunk hip deep into real-life quicksand. Stunned, Acord states she could neither feel the bottom nor gain footing to push herself out. Thankfully, her hubby existed to pull her to security.
According to AP News, the couple was strolling by the water at Popham Beach State Park when Acord sank into the quicksand pit in the blink of an eye. Acord then discharged a scream and stated, “I can’t go out!”
Britannica defines quicksand as “sand that acts as a liquid due to the fact that it is saturated with water.” The encyclopedia website calls quicksand “a mucky nuisance” but also says it’s really unlikely to kill a person. Because quicksand is denser than the human body, Britannica says quicksand won’t suck human beings to the bottom. Rather, the human will drift.
“Our legs are pretty dense, so [humans] may sink, but the upper body contains the lungs, and therefore is resilient enough to stay out of trouble,” states Britannica on its site.
In an interview with regional news, a representative of the Maine Department of Farming, Conservation, and Forestry suggested Acord stepped on a pocket of supersaturated sand “caused by the altering instructions of the nearby Morse River.”
Department interactions director Jim Britt said: “The sand is saturated with water. It’s […] very simple to find yourself sinking into it.”
Have you become aware of real-life quicksand?
Jamie Acord was strolling on a Maine beach with her hubby this previous weekend, when she all of a sudden sunk waist deep into real-life quicksand.