ANSWERS: 3
  • Morecambe Bay : Largest Quicksand on the Earth Morecambe Bay is a large bay in northwest England, nearly due east of the Isle of Man and just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand covering a total area of 310 km². The sands have been responsible for many deaths, including the sinking or overturning of horse-drawn coaches before the cessation of the service in 1857. These deaths were usually caused by the notoriously rapid incoming tide, and not necessarily because of the quicksand itself.
  • It's my undertsanding, every cheesy 1970's movie or TV show notwithstanding, that no one has actually ever died in quicksand. In fact, a new study was released stating that no matter how hard experimenters tried to get a human body to sink in quicksand, it would only sink so far. Apparently the physics of the quicksand cause a body to float more than sink. Who knew?
  • Not as well known as Morecambe, the Qattara Depression of northwest Egypt. This region, one of the lowest points on the African continent is notorious for its treacherous saline salt marshes and 'Fech Fech'..a local term for a form of quicksand. Considered to be impassable by the military during WW2 its location in the western Libyan desert defined the boundaries of the North African campaign, including the famous battle of El Alamein..the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group)apparently mapped the Qattara Depression, and from their specialised knowledge of this region one must assume the area was declared a no go zone for military vehicles, especially tanks. Some military vehicles and their personnel were lost to the depression dispelling the mistaken belief that quicksand isn't found in the desert..not the place to go with kids and make sand castles.

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