Quicksand Traps in Remote Wilderness: A Guide to Avoiding Disaster Quicksand is a notoriously treacherous terrain feature that has claimed many lives and limbs in remote wilderness areas.
It forms when water saturates loose or sandy ground, creating an unstable surface that can suck a person down with alarming speed.
Water from nearby sources like rivers or lakes often seeps into the soil, causing particles to separate and lose their structural integrity.