Dick Winter, age 7, of Lansing,

How do quicksands form?

A quicksand may look like a safe sandy beach, But if you step in it, you may sink down into a. soupy mixture of sand and sea water. It forms because there :Ls a layer of dense, solid rock way down below tine sand. The dense rock acts like a basin. When the tide comes in, the water seeps down through the sand. The buried basin of solid rock fills up with a soft soup of sand mixed with tidal water,

The cause of the quicksand is buried underground and you cannot see it. The top of the quicksand looks no different from any wet beach. This is why a sensible young person does not go exploring a strange beach by himself, Always take a grown‑up who will know how to test a new beach.