Quicksand Fans

I saw this news clip a while back about something called "rock dust," and hearing that it's a byproduct of rock quarries, it had me wondering if it might have any potential for making something like that quarry clay kind of quicksand, like what we see in the Archenemys videos? I have no idea what the feasibly and safety of it be for example, does it have lime in it, or would the resulting substance be anything like quarry clay? But it sounds like it's relatively abundant and perhaps easy to obtain.

What's everyone's thoughts, and experience and/or knowledge with this material?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZxcO71C5Sg

I am not a geologist but I can provide some feedback. Terms such as "dus,t" "silt,"and "clay" refer most directly to particle size. Whether or not something of this sort will make a good mud pit, however, the kind of rock will also make a major difference. With the bentonite clay I use at Studio 588, for example, the term "bentonte" refers to a specific mineral. Actually there are different kinds of bentonite as well. Bentonite swells when it gets wet. Some minerals might have undesirable properties. Coal, for example, is organic, so it might have ingredients that could be toxic.

One thing that might be very positive, could be the price. The video shows the dust being sprayed over farmland as an additive, so I woud expect the proce to be fairly low.

I looked into this and had a hard time sourcing it in the southwest United States. Seems like a northern thing.
I vaguely recall something about powdered shale and silica being in the rocks and it's fuckin horrid for your lungs.
Seems fun though, results may vary.

Fred588 wrote:I am not a geologist but I can provide some feedback. Terms such as "dus,t" "silt,"and "clay" refer most directly to particle size. Whether or not something of this sort will make a good mud pit, however, the kind of rock will also make a major difference. With the bentonite clay I use at Studio 588, for example, the term "bentonte" refers to a specific mineral. Actually there are different kinds of bentonite as well. Bentonite swells when it gets wet. Some minerals might have undesirable properties. Coal, for example, is organic, so it might have ingredients that could be toxic.

One thing that might be very positive, could be the price. The video shows the dust being sprayed over farmland as an additive, so I woud expect the proce to be fairly low.

Interesting points: what you get depends on where it comes from, and the price, I thought about mentioning that but I forgot. Question is, where to source it? You can find bags of rock dust on gardeners supply sites, but aside from maybe testing purposes it'd be too expensive in bulk, and perhaps not the same as what you'd find locally. So I'm assuming you just go straight to the quarry, like buying gravel, or maybe a farmers supply store?

hiimawesome wrote:I looked into this and had a hard time sourcing it in the southwest United States. Seems like a northern thing.
I vaguely recall something about powdered shale and silica being in the rocks and it's fuckin horrid for your lungs.
Seems fun though, results may vary.

Bentonite clay is horrible for your lungs, but you're not supposed to inhale it, the idea is to add water and sink in it

Theo wrote:

Fred588 wrote:I am not a geologist but I can provide some feedback. Terms such as "dus,t" "silt,"and "clay" refer most directly to particle size. Whether or not something of this sort will make a good mud pit, however, the kind of rock will also make a major difference. With the bentonite clay I use at Studio 588, for example, the term "bentonte" refers to a specific mineral. Actually there are different kinds of bentonite as well. Bentonite swells when it gets wet. Some minerals might have undesirable properties. Coal, for example, is organic, so it might have ingredients that could be toxic.

One thing that might be very positive, could be the price. The video shows the dust being sprayed over farmland as an additive, so I woud expect the proce to be fairly low.

Interesting points: what you get depends on where it comes from, and the price, I thought about mentioning that but I forgot. Question is, where to source it? You can find bags of rock dust on gardeners supply sites, but aside from maybe testing purposes it'd be too expensive in bulk, and perhaps not the same as what you'd find locally. So I'm assuming you just go straight to the quarry, like buying gravel, or maybe a farmers supply store?

hiimawesome wrote:I looked into this and had a hard time sourcing it in the southwest United States. Seems like a northern thing.
I vaguely recall something about powdered shale and silica being in the rocks and it's fuckin horrid for your lungs.
Seems fun though, results may vary.

Bentonite clay is horrible for your lungs, but you're not supposed to inhale it, the idea is to add water and sink in it

It is true that SOME bentonite will have things harmful to breathe, this is only relevent to anyone handlling the dry powder. No one is going to breathe the mud. Well if they do they will drown long before developing lung disease.

Any kind of mineral is heavy, so the best source will always be the nearest source.

It's a byproduct of sand/gravel crushing. The crusher is constantly misted with water while working to keep the dust out of the air. The muddy water (aka slurry) gets pumped into a pit where tge dust can settle out without posing an environmental problem. That leaves you with a huge pit of the most awesome clay you'll ever sink in.

Another benefit of it is that there's little organic matter in it if any at all, and tge particals of clay are so fine they create an Anerobic (low O2) environment that inhibits the growth of any biological nasties that can make you sick.