All posts by

I developed a fear of quicksand in my youth as it was an oddly popular element of danger in 70’s TV shows. Eventually my friend assured me that “quicksand doesn’t exist.” Apparently it was just pretend on shows like Dukes of Hazard and The Bionic Woman to make them more exciting. So, we incorporated quicksand into our playtime, jumping from pillow to pillow that we’d toss on the brown and gold shag carpet. “Don’t fall into the quicksand!”Such sweet memories…until recently when I learned a new word: liquifaction. This is what happens when an earthquake hits an area and dissolves the sediment in the ground until it becomes, yep, like quicksand, swallowing cars, people, whatever, when the ground shakes from solid into rapidly moving fine particles.