Officials at Maine’s most popular state beach posted signs last week warning visitors that the ground beneath their feet could give way and land them in natural pockets of sticky sediment.
Signs at Popham Beach State Park, about 50 miles east of Portland, Maine, warn visitors of potential dangers near the mouth of the Morse River, the spokesperson said by email. word of the office, Jim Britt.
The river meets the sea at the relatively busy National Beach, where Jamie Acord was walking the first weekend in June when she instantly fell waist-deep into wet sediment, the banking technology specialist said Tuesday.
“My husband turned around and asked, ‘Where were you…'” she recalls. “It’s like if you were walking down the street and there was a manhole cover missing, but you didn’t notice it and just showed up.”
Acord said she kept her composure and tried to understand what happened. “Honestly, I thought I fell into a hole a child dug,” she said.
But after it came out, it didn’t look like a child’s work with a plastic shovel.
“When we turned around, there was nothing there, it was the beach,” Acord said. “It was very surreal.”
According to official documents, hidden pits are the result of “supersaturated sand,” more commonly known as quicksand.
The episode shook Acord in another way. She had items in her hands and things might not have gone as well if she hadn’t received immediate help.
“I went to the beach alone all the time,” she said. “Maybe I started to panic because I couldn’t go out by myself.”
Acord was worried about the fate of others who were walking alone and might panic in such a situation. She said she spoke to a park ranger and a rescuer before telling the world about the incident via social media.
Beach officials said the nearby Morse River had moved closer to a busy part of the beach, putting visitors in the path of the unusually wet sand, Acord said.
A 2021 state guide to beach erosion said the river had migrated a half-mile in recent decades.
“The river underwent a drastic change in course in 2010,” wrote Robert G. Marvinney of the Maine Geological Survey, author of the guide.
The paper, in part, blames climate change and argues that erosion from rising seas – the product of thermal expansion and melting ice sheets and glaciers – is redrawing the coastal map.
The river’s movement has led to groundwater flow that can help create supersaturated pockets of sand on and near its banks, experts say.
At Popham Beach State Park and other beaches, wet sand is typically about 30 percent water, said state marine biologist Peter Slovinsky. Pockets of supersaturated sediment hold about twice as much water, he said.
For now, beach visitors who find themselves in a pit of wet sand are advised to remain calm, shed any extra weight from unnecessary items, bags or clothing, distribute their weight as if trying to float and crawling to safety.
Although the hazard in question is commonly referred to as quicksand, state officials were keen to clarify that it was not the quicksand of Saturday morning cartoons.
People are not normally cemented in the depths below sea level. Slovinsky said falling into one of the pits is probably more common than people think, because many people get away without reporting it .
It happened to him, he said, teaching him that being calm is the best response. He advises not to be a hero if a pit of wet sand runs away with goods or clothes.
“If your shoes come off, don’t worry,” he said. “Don’t look for your shoes. Shoes can be replaced.”