duuudeization wrote:Not sure this qualifies for what you are looking for. As a teen I was on the edge of a small, manufactured lake, wearing only a pair of board shorts; I'm guessing, by the presence of a front end loader and small mountains of dirt, that it was dirt for compaction on constructive sites.
I stepped on a ' ledge ' created where runoff for rain had accumulated at the edge of the water and sank to rib level. Aside from the thrill, I was fascinated watching the swirl taking place around me. While preoccupied with this at torso level, the dirt compacted and settled around me from the hips down, essentially pinning me in place like a vise. No amount of leaning, shifting, pulling, or any other movement dislodged me, even though I'm fairly strong and athletic.
Judging by the position of the sun, it took me two hours or so to dig myself out with my hands, and then enjoy a mile walk home
Sounds like you encountered quicksand, which when disturbed, allows you to sink in, but then immediately starts to settle and pack into regular sand, forcing the water out, to pool at the surface. You have to keep it agitated, and not linger for too long, otherwise the solidified sand takes a while to dig yourself out, as you found out!
I used to frequent a slide area a few hours' cycling from where I live (my Harris Creek quicksilt slide area), which is mostly silt (with some clay mixed in), with some areas with sand or clay, with most of the good sinking areas close to silt cliffs. One day, I chose a silty spot to sink, without clothes, pounding it with my feet (using my quicksand dance to activate it) and then pumping my legs to sink down into the quicksilt up to my belly button. I then lingered in it for a while, enjoying the experience. When I was finally ready to work myself out, by pumping my legs while pushing down on the ground beside me, I found that the ground around my legs and feet wouldn't budge!
I kept on trying to pump my legs over and over again for a long time to agitate it to loosen it, but no dice!
I was totally stuck, the first time it ever happened in quicksilt!
After trying forever to agitate it, I finally gave up and started to dig the quicksilt away from me. After digging away the softer quicksilt from around my waist, I wound up exposing coarse sand at the top of my legs that had been hidden under the silt!
Now it made sense! The quicksilt was concealing quicksand underneath, which then settled into normal sand while I was lingering there, trapping me in solid sand to the top of my legs!
So, I spent much of the day working my fingers between the solid sand and my legs, and then yanking chunks of sand loose and tossing them aside, digging a deeper and deeper hole around my legs, until I was finally able to free my feet, and completely escape.