Due to global warming, the quicksand has dried out and can easily be walked across. Don approves.
It’s really hard to see (and probably impossible in a newspaper), but in the 3rd panel there are cracks radiating out from the signpost, implying that the ground is dry and hard.
It was actually easier to see in the newspaper because there was no dark-brown color on the quicksand.
If climate change caused the quicksand to dry up, wouldn’t it just be… sand?
“If climate change caused the quicksand to dry up, wouldn’t it just be… sand?”
No. Quicksand is quicksand when the upward pressure from water entering roughly matches the downward pressure from the fact that sand is denser than water. Like when a boat uses just enough engine power to match the current. The engine pushing upstream matches the current flowing downstream, and the boat stays in roughly the same place and looks like it isn’t moving.
So, even a slight change in water pressure “turns off” the quicksand effect, leaving… wet sand. The effect can go both ways… more water pressure, and the quicksand bog turns into a spring, less water pressure, and the quicksand bog turns into a hole full of wet sand.
Thanks for the explanations. I certainly didn’t get it. However, some questions linger.
Why didn’t Don just walk around the tiny patch of quicksand? Was he just trying to prove a point?
In the TV/movie/comic world, quicksand swallows everything up. Why did the sign not sink?
Climate change was a thing in prehistoric times? Just kidding. It’s BC. I get it.
MarkM: It’s Wizard of Id, not B.C., so it’s medieval times. (Although I guess climate change has always been “a thing.”)
“Why didn’t Don just walk around the tiny patch of quicksand?”
The thing about quicksand is that it looks just like sand. Because differences in water pressure can change exactly where quicksand manifests, a quicksand warning is more like a minefield warning.
“It’s Wizard of Id, not B.C., so it’s medieval times.”
Actually, I think WoI is set in a medieval kingdom in present time. There are topical references within its “reality”.
I don’t know about medieval times, but there was the little ice age 1645-1715. That was climate change.
Kilby, 1816 was Mt. Tambora, not climate. Climate is an average of weather over time. Right?
True, but the article mentions it as a major contributing effect coming at the end of the “little ice age” (the period mentioned there covers a larger range than the years you quoted).
I’d think the first indication this quicksand wasn’t particularly dangerous would be that the sign was staying up in it…
“I’d think the first indication this quicksand wasn’t particularly dangerous would be that the sign was staying up in it”
Would you apply the same logic to rip currents, since the signs warning about them having drifted out to sea?
Comics I Don't Understand 
Due to global warming, the quicksand has dried out and can easily be walked across. Don approves.
It’s really hard to see (and probably impossible in a newspaper), but in the 3rd panel there are cracks radiating out from the signpost, implying that the ground is dry and hard.
It was actually easier to see in the newspaper because there was no dark-brown color on the quicksand.
If climate change caused the quicksand to dry up, wouldn’t it just be… sand?
“If climate change caused the quicksand to dry up, wouldn’t it just be… sand?”
No. Quicksand is quicksand when the upward pressure from water entering roughly matches the downward pressure from the fact that sand is denser than water. Like when a boat uses just enough engine power to match the current. The engine pushing upstream matches the current flowing downstream, and the boat stays in roughly the same place and looks like it isn’t moving.
So, even a slight change in water pressure “turns off” the quicksand effect, leaving… wet sand. The effect can go both ways… more water pressure, and the quicksand bog turns into a spring, less water pressure, and the quicksand bog turns into a hole full of wet sand.
Thanks for the explanations. I certainly didn’t get it. However, some questions linger.
Why didn’t Don just walk around the tiny patch of quicksand? Was he just trying to prove a point?
In the TV/movie/comic world, quicksand swallows everything up. Why did the sign not sink?
Climate change was a thing in prehistoric times? Just kidding. It’s BC. I get it.
MarkM: It’s Wizard of Id, not B.C., so it’s medieval times. (Although I guess climate change has always been “a thing.”)
“Why didn’t Don just walk around the tiny patch of quicksand?”
The thing about quicksand is that it looks just like sand. Because differences in water pressure can change exactly where quicksand manifests, a quicksand warning is more like a minefield warning.
“It’s Wizard of Id, not B.C., so it’s medieval times.”
Actually, I think WoI is set in a medieval kingdom in present time. There are topical references within its “reality”.
I don’t know about medieval times, but there was the little ice age 1645-1715. That was climate change.
@ MiB – There was also a “year without a summer” in 1816.
Kilby, 1816 was Mt. Tambora, not climate. Climate is an average of weather over time. Right?
True, but the article mentions it as a major contributing effect coming at the end of the “little ice age” (the period mentioned there covers a larger range than the years you quoted).
I’d think the first indication this quicksand wasn’t particularly dangerous would be that the sign was staying up in it…
“I’d think the first indication this quicksand wasn’t particularly dangerous would be that the sign was staying up in it”
Would you apply the same logic to rip currents, since the signs warning about them having drifted out to sea?