Practical Engineering - 2025-04-01
Just about every year, the news reports that someone was buried when a hole they dug collapsed on top of them 🌌Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/Practical-Engineering 🏙️Watch The Logistics of Search and Rescue: https://nebula.tv/videos/wendover-the-logistics-of-search-and-rescue?ref=practical-engineering Errata/Addenda: -I didn't mention that digging holes on the beach can affect wildlife that live on the beach. If you dig a hole, always remember to fill it in afterward! Understanding some of the sneaky behaviors of beach sand can help you delight in the primitive joy of digging a big hole without putting your life at risk in the process. Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/practical-engineering-why-are-beach-holes-so-deadly Signed copies of my book (plus other cool stuff) are available here: https://store.practical.engineering/ Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos! CONNECT WITH ME ____________________________________ Website: http://practical.engineering Twitter: https://twitter.com/HillhouseGrady Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/practicalengineering Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalEngineering Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PracticalEngineerGrady Patreon: http://patreon.com/PracticalEngineering SPONSORSHIP INQUIRIES ____________________________________ Please email my agent at practicalengineering@standard.tv DISCLAIMER ____________________________________ This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. SPECIAL THANKS ____________________________________ This video is sponsored by Nebula. Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks. Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com/creator Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fBPdu8w9U Video by Grady Hillhouse Edited by Wesley Crump Produced by Ralph Crewe Graphics by Nebula Studios
"Kids! Stop digging in that sand! Don't you know that sand's shear strength is a complex function of gravity, friction angle, cohesion from saturation and capillary action, complicated by dilatency, surcharge loads, and the angle of repose? Have your mother and I taught you nothing??"
Honestly to me that would be the best dad 🤣🤣
User name checks out.
If Sheldon was a father
Spoil way too close to the pit, go to your room and deduct your OSHA fine from your allowance.
Sounds like a far side comic
Lesson, beware of unlicensed digging contractors who also offer castle building at the same locale. Studies found most contractors average ages only 5 years old.
This is a concerning trend. If I had my way, a lot of 5 year olds would be doing Perp Walks..!
Also be on the lookout for unreasonable demands in the fine print, like "payment must be made in rocky road or at least chocolate ice cream or if not those than maybe convince my mom to bring over my big league chew and iPad," I really got screwed on that one.
@justinklenk lmao
They're unlicensed, unpaid, and under-trained. Sure, they may have the experience of successfully completing hundreds of projects, but were any of those ever inspected to be up to code?
Child labor running amuck.
I’m just going to read the title and assume this is an April Fools joke without watching it. That must mean digging a 50ft deep hole in any beach is completely safe and without any risk!
Nice try, but it's too late. New Phobia Unlocked!
please, reminds us to never have you near kids and beaches.
I think we should go all go to the beach and dig a hole and sell the sand
Go right ahead. Please. Self-correcting problem
The joke is on you this time. Try again next year.
When I was about 10 years old, two teenagers (probably 14 or 15) were digging a big hole in the sand. It was so deep that everyone around was amazed, and all the kids wanted to go inside. You even had to queue just to get in for a few seconds.
When it was my turn, they took my hands, lifted me up and helped me go down. The top of the hole was above my head, and I was standing! My parents told me to sit down just for a picture. I sat there for 10 seconds — it was such a strange feeling, surrounded by sand walls in the bottom of this dark hole, and the small circle of light above my head. No noises, no waves sounds, no kids playing or screaming, all silence... At the bottom of the hole, they had widened the walls so that it looked like the shape of a vase. There was actually plenty of space down there. It was in 1994, at the time we didn't have all that knowledge of how dangerous it could be.
When you’re 10, you don’t think about what could have happened. But here I am, 30 years later, still thinking about that moment every time I go to the beach. And now I tell my children never to dig a hole that deep.
I got anxiety just reading this. Just goes to show how danger can bite just due to lack of knowledge. Glad you are here with us to share that terrifying story!
I'm only a few seconds in, but I love how the "beaches are dangerous - consider the lifeguards" makes it sound as though the lifeguards themselves were an often underestimated source of danger.
I mean, have you seen them beating on somebody's chest repeatedly in between sucking face? Scary stuff.
Glad to know we all on the same page here! 🤣
When I was a teen there was a lifeguard at my favorite beach that was DEFINITELY dangerous... to my relationship at the time.
@spliffdelakong5422 i was watching the stock footage of the lifeguards, and it had me thinking, "lifeguards are all fit, athletic, attentive, and sufficiently intelligent to perform all the functions of their job (i assume they're not solely paid to watch over people). i bet 90% of lifeguards have a partner"
I paused the video after that few seconds, not sure if I even want to watch the rest...
Remember to keep your backfill away from the edge... Having it right next to the hole effectively makes it as deep as the top of the backfill pile
Good point!
Our rule of thumb was:
Don't dig a hole deeper than it is wide.
Other learned rules are:
Always have an exit dug (so a slope on one side),
and when you hit the water table level, the walls are GOING to collapse, it is just a matter of when.
What are you saying. This is how you fortify your encampment on the beech. A ditch (read: hole) and a wall. You dig the ditch and put the wall on top of the spoil. Or do you need Roel Konijnendijk to say it?
@ayybe7894 Twice as wide as you are deep. That was how we did it at an excavation company I worked for. Its the same basic idea as the rule for damaged buildings. The minimum safe distance from a damaged building is twice its height.
If your hole is only as wide as it is deep, even a partial collapse of any size will bury a good chunk of the hole and whatever is in it.
@ Fair point. Wider is better
The same risks apply in grain bins. Workers are constantly warned about entering grain bins alone, and EMS folks get special training on how to extract someone who has become stuck.
Grain bins or, in general, any bin/tank containing any organic matter also have the additional risk of asphyxiation because decomposition processes consume all the oxygen. Many a farmer and their entire family have died because of this.
Grain bins are different though, it has more like a quicksand effect, and when getting emptied, it's from the bottom which might lead to sinkholes. On top of the lack of oxygen mentioned above
Bro getting sucked into infinite corn inside of a 200ft tall grain elevator would be probably the worst thing. I’ve seen the videos of that happening to birds.
You mean grain silo
@kevoplugmein5361 Yeah grain bins/silos
my family once buried me up to my neck, with one arm out, on my knees, at leo carrillo beach. the tide started to come in, and my dad and uncles found my ten year old screams for help this hilarious. it was pretty funny for a few minutes, but then i was getting worried, the waves were over my face, and couldnt dig my way out. finally, my 8 month pregnant aunt got pissed and dragged me out,one handed, like a gawddang superhero. did she ever give my dad and uncles the business too. thanks aunt Kathy!
Goodness gracious
I'm all for having fun messing around with younger siblings, but I'll be the first to say that's fkd up
lying for attention or unusually cruel abusive father and uncles, it’s anyone’s guess
@vaudeville-villain Oh my god why does every perfectly benign anecdotal story have to be a lie to people on the internet. Way crazier stuff has happened to people than this, please.
@vaudeville-villain if that's unusually cruel to you, you're a lucky person, it means you grew up surrounded by very nice people lol
I was about 12 years old when I dug a deep hole, and from there started digging horizontally, even had my head and torso deep in that horizontal hole. When it became dark I decided to 'continue tomorrow'. Oh, was I p.ssed the next morning when somebody had come in and completely destroyed everything I had dug.
It wasn't until years later that I realized that whoever did this likely saved my life.
Also likely that it could have collapsed itself
@jwalster9412 Yes, that's their point...
@s3dchrno, OP is saying a person came along and deliberately collapsed the pit. second poster is saying the pit collapsed on its own without intervention as it likely would have done on top of OP anyway
So dramatic. A couple of pounds of sand won’t kill you
@Bananawanana you have to watch the video before you comment
I'm an ocean lifeguard. Not me personally, I was further down the beach at the time, but my crew had to dig a kid out who nearly died. And multiple kids have died in NJ in the last decade from sand collapsing over them in a hole on the beach. Not an April fools joke, just tragedy.
Thanks for sharing, important lesson for parents to learn. Albeit at a sad cost for the families that lost those kids.
@AdmiralDGi mean, you can always make more kids. Holes are special.
I remember growing up and we'd go to Ocean City Maryland every year and always thought the lifeguards were buzzkills saying we couldn't dig holes deeper then like 12 inches.
I was visiting a beach in North Carolina once and there was a kid in a fairly deep hole (for him - about up to my shoulders) as the tide started coming back in. I saw the sand shifting just a bit and ran over and grabbed him and hauled him out (much to his and his mother's protests) ... about a minute later the hole collapsed. I pointed and told her "if he was still in there, he'd be dead". I had nightmares about that one for a while ...
Sélection naturelle !. Darwin !!!.
I was in 6th grade when we dug about a 2ft x 8 ft long tunnel at the beach with my soccer team. We were all going under it really fast and just as I went in, someone ran across the top and caved it in on me. I remember first my legs and then seconds later lights out and I couldn't breathe. It took all the Dads from my soccer team to dig me out and I remember my coach grabbing my hair and pulling my head up. lol I'm 30 now and I'll never forget that. It was crazy how heavy that was and I was none the wiser.
Holy... Psychology has some evidence that suffocating is the scariest thing for a human. We normally go into a horrific panic,
Do you still know how you handled it? in the situation and after?
I should add that once that medication wore off, I was ok.
@JustsomeSteve It sounds like it knocked him out, which absolutely tracks. By the time there's enough sand for it hold shape, unless the person is in just the right position they're not going to get that typical suffocation sensation. That's a much slower process.
But yeah, you're absolutely on the money regarding suffocation, specifically suffocation that takes time, and even that has different types. Suffocation from being confined physically is probably what you're thinking of. That can be from the environment, i.e. stuck in a small space like a cave or structural collapse. Another method of suffocation that someone can survive to later have psychological trauma from is suffocation from an illness like pneumonia.
I don't know what all has been published but I can tell you from personal experience that the feeling of your lungs slowly filling up with fluid, whether or not you understand what's happening, is absolutely terrifying. I had pneumonia twice as a super young kid (early 80s). I don't remember much about those hospital stays, but to this day I have a very visceral memory of what it felt like.
The confined space thing/being in an area that is slowly sapped of oxygen, the longer it takes the worse the after affects will be.
I'm really glad you asked this question, and I encourage you to look more into it. I'm positive that there are a derth of peer reviewed articles etc out there on the interwebs.
Super glad the OP of this comment thread made it out virtually unscathed. I know way too many stories of people, children especially, who weren't as lucky. ✌️
@JustsomeSteveA girlfriend thought it would be a funny joke to hold my nose and mouth while I was sleeping. I woke up in a panic and she was smiling. We weren’t together too much longer after that.
I'm glad you are here to tell the story
I was never aware of this until a 17 year old boy died a few weeks ago at a beach here in Italy. 5 year old lil brother witnessed it and tried to tell the parents, but they weren't able to pull him out until 40 mins later.
The boy dug a hole 5ft deep, which is crazy to me. Anyway, condolences to that family and thank you for raising awareness of this danger.
Well that 17 year old was a moron then. According to people on YouTube comments, they wanna end humanity because some people are dumb.
Story time: when I was little, my Dad used to bring a ton of cornstarch to the beach with us, and after we set up our blanket, he would set to work mixing sand with water and cornstarch and forming it into a couch, and end tables, and ottomans, etc. After an hour or so they would harden into fairly durable furniture.
He'd even make me my own little play box on the side.
People would always stop and ask to take pictures of us. We even saw our picture in Sunset magazine one day.
I miss those times.
Wanna become now like him lol
sounds fun, but I wonder if there's any detriment to a beach environment if an abundance of cornstarch is introduced
@16m49x3 yeah, proly best if it doesn’t catch on as a trend. One or two families doing it is probably fine, but too much cornstarch would probably do something crazy.
@ oh right...
So you were out there polluting the beach. Cool
A good general rule is never dig deeper than you're willing to be burried. The major threat is external compression of the diaphram preventing breathing, which means waist-deep is where things get dangerous. The complicating factor is what is waist deep when you're standing is likely neck deep if you slip and fall, and that fall can be what triggers the collapse.
This comment finally explained to me why it gets so dangerous so quickly. I kept thinking to myself, "sure, I'll keep an eye out, but it can't be that bad until you get completely buried!". Thanks!
Don't forget crush syndrome
@ That can be a threat, especially if you have really little kids in the bottom of the hole, or if you're sufficiently unlucky that it's an S-wave earthquake that pushes the sides violently into you. You're talking the pressure equivalent of about 8 to 10 feet of water at the bottom if you're diggin 3 feet deep, which isn't likely to cause that kind of serious injury.
@tiagotiagot I doubt someone being buried in sand is going to develop compartment syndrome. That takes days to weeks to develop.
Joke's on you, I don't wear diapers to be compressed anymore. So I can dig as deep as I want.
There is a reason why OSHA requires any trench or pit dug beyond 5ft needs shoring on the walls to prevent collapse
Actually 4 feet but correct me if I'm wrong
These guys OSHA
@DBTdad I quote OSHA Trenching and Excavation Safety Booklet - The Excavation standards do not require a protective system when an excavation is made entirely in stable rock or when an excavation is less than 5 feet (1.52 meters) deep and a competent person has examined the ground and found no indication of a potential cave-in.
I don’t think a 10 year old is thinking that at a beach.
If there are feet in your walls at all, it's gotten gruesome and you should probably be focussing on finding those unfortunate souls who've had their feet detached and see if you can render aid.
Not quite the same, but when I was little, I fell into a hole someone dug at the beach. The tide had come in (and out again), filling the hole with water. Sand was floating on the surface, making it look almost exactly like the wet, solid sand around it. I went in, and had my parents not been watching me, I'd without a doubt have drowned.
Everything's fun and games until someone brings steel matting and anchor stakes to dig a hole.
Doesn't that just make the fun bigger?
@TheGamehorn maybe it turns into work
Break out the trench boxes
Now it's not just fun and games, you start hitting rock and stone.
@Nota-Skaven ROCK AND STONE! ⛏
Lifelong beach resident. Beach sand holes have rules. No holes deeper than waist deep of shortest person. Kids dig out wet sand pretty fast. The sand they dug out dries fast and so does the top 18 to 24in. When it collapses, dry sand is MUCH harder to dig out and remove from a victim. The sand keeps collapsing as you remove it. That's the reason they have people sit in a ring(not over victim) and everyone pull sand outward. Be safe and watch for rip currents!
Knee-deep on my beach
yeah, waist height seem much more reasonable than knee height. If you tell a kid knee height they will just ignore you I think so better to go with a limit they can respect
Your beach sand holes may have rules. Mine don't thanks
I was just thinking, why is the rule in the video knee height? Seems like even if a hole collapsed to fill 100% with dirt, you not be in a ton of danger if you were only buried to waist--wouldnt have trouble breathing or anything.
@junkequationbecause when a hole collapses, you are often knocked over and buried.
Knee height means where your head/chest will end up close enough to get to the surface from landing on your hands, while waist high means that might still leave you 6” from air until you can dig out.
But yeah, it’s probably a bit on the cautious side. OSHA rules are no going into a trench deeper than 3’ unless it is braced to prevent collapse, and that’s between thigh high and waist high for adult males.
You solved the rubiks cube on the shelf inbetween the different recordings 14:00
Probably did it while talking in between and showing clips too.
He might be a pro speedcuber
NICE CATCH
@Rose_Butterfly98 He's mentioned before that he can solve them but he's slow and then his kids eventually come and scramble it up again.
I was secretly hoping it was going to look different each time he was on screen lol
@Tahoza I'm slow at solving cubes too, but when I worked at a game store I didn't tell anyone I could solve them at all. It took months for them to figure out why the display unit seemed to be solved at some point in each day, although someone would inevitably scramble it again.
I think it's okay for children to dig in the sand, provided that they have the correct permits and, in some cases, a consultation from a geo-structural engineer.
I always preferred digging long ditches to deep holes anyway. Then you can fill it with water and make a moat!
jup with a mound in the middle and then proudly stand on top of your creation proclaiming your kingdom!
The beach we visited had a few streams so dams was the engineering of choice
Preach
Or fill it with lava and make a hazard.
@jwalster9412I don't think this is Minecraft they're talking about.
When I was a kid, my cousin and I were digging a hole into a mound of sugar sand. We were several feet in and having to take turns. He had just crawled out to give me a turn when the hole collapsed. We were young, but old enough to realize how close we came to digging a grave.
New Jersey?
Aw nah you’re cookes
As a professional lifeguard who has responded to multiple sand entrapments, THANK YOU for highlighting these hazards.
We have whole trainings for response to this every year and spend a TON of time educating the public about the risks of digging unsafe holes and filling in holes left behind to make sure nobody becomes an unsuspecting victim.
We need a kid version of this video in primary school. Kids should be taught to understand that sand is tricky and unintuitive.
@JohnWilliams-gy5yc& that cats go to the toilet in domestic sandboxes if you don't cover them up.
A DEEPLY understood and WELL developed field of digging holes.
As an ocean lifeguard, I really appreciated this video. We get trained in sand entrapment and it's a very real and very scary thing to think about having to respond to as a first responder, especially when it's kids that usually get trapped. It's always been hard to explain to the public that this is a serious issue and most only see it as a way I'm trying to limit their fun. Our beach rules are no holes deeper than your waist and they have to be double as wide as they are deep. Doesn't feel that deep until you think about a toddler getting trapped in that hole when a parent isn't looking and lifeguard trucks on the beach unable to see holes in their coned off access lanes.
My grandma caught my cousins and I digging a "mine" like granddad used to. Only we didn't live in coal country like they used to, and were diggin in slightly damp Florida sugar sand into a berm from when they had some acres cleared.
We were confused when she was hollering at us with a passion and werent even beating the hell outta eachother.
About ten minutes later once pap heard what was going on he came over with his front end loader and backed up grandmas points. Caved it in like it was nothin and told us that's where we could've been when it collapsed on its own.
That was a very visceral lesson we got that day, and we also saw how mediocre our timbering was.
🤦
I accidentally talked a friend into quitting his job by talking about how scary it was. He was going around the country digging ditches, made really decent money honestly. I basically just said that he's a badass for even being willing to do it and he didn't really look into it or intuitively have a feeling for why it paid so much. He quit literally that night and I don't blame him
It's not theory, three days ago in Italy, a boy died in a hole five feet deep.
I wonder how many around the world every year?
Watch the video
Maybe watch the video
@Goro_Maj1ma maybe read my question. World is bigger than America.
My little brother was digging a hole in Laguna Beach years ago when it collapsed on him and buried him for a few minutes. A ton of people ran over and started digging when they heard my mom scream. He was alright but it's a terrifying thing to witness.
The dangers of quicksand are far less than the TV shows implied when I was a kid. But it turns out that dry sand is the thing to beware of!
A ton of people?
thank heavens you got him out, thats so scary.
@user-zr6pl6nb6zYes literally 2000lbs of people showed up and helped..
@user-zr6pl6nb6z about 15 people would add up to a ton
One of the things I remember from my various construction site and equipment training is the hazard of driving a vehicle near a pit. The walls seem stable until they aren't.
Just drive faster to reduce pressure)
@abrvalg321 and if you are fast enough you won't "sink in". :D
@abrvalg321 Still pretty risky
@mikehawk5722 He's joking, lol
Site manager: "Look it'll be fine, everyone is driving there Utes in there."
me: sitting in a truck with 30T of load contemplating whether its too late to call in sick
if it feels or looks dodgy let someone else do it you're life's worth more than you're job.
13:37 it’s would be an interesting interaction with a game warden who told you to stop digging a hole in the sand if you showed them that the slope of the sides of the hole was compliant with OSHA’s regulations on the construction of said hole in the sand
what is a "game warden"? you mean just a lifeguard? they're gonna be the ones that tell you to stop digging your hole
@Heroo01 it would likely be a life guard, however if digging were certain wildlife may be present and or protected it would be within the jurisdiction of a game warden to prevent it.
Like during sea turtle nesting season for instance.
@100GTAGUY gotcha. thanks for the context of what a game warden is too lmao
In Florida game wardens patrol the beach.
@Heroo01 so many npc's like you on this platform rely on strangers to teach you random sht instead of taking 10 sec of your time and do your own research... every generation really is getting dumber and dumber...
5:25 "But things get more complicated when you add water to the mix" is basically civil engineering in a nutshell
Im a lifeguard during summer in the Netherlands. Theres a lot of people digging holes over here, and the amount of people that overestimate the strength of sand is insane. The amount of people acting passive aggressive when I tell them to close deep pits, or to stay with the pits at all time is close to 100%. We had a child get buried and comatose last year even 😢
Het spijt me. Dat is vreselijk.
There should an ad campaign about this.
People look at me funny when I say that I use my snow shovel most in summer.
But I live close to a beach that's popular with cycling tourists.
I think you meant underestimate, not overestimate, right?
@neonlinesPPyes, if people are dying and almost dying from the crushing weight and power of the sand then that would be underestimating it’s strength.
I've spent 20 years working in excavations in of different types and depths, different soil types, different moisture levels, etc, and have always hated when I had to work in sandy soils. It never settles right, and is much too prone to fail unexpectedly. Thank you for getting into the science of why certain days were terrifying.
Been there...still get shivers thinking about it.
Serious question! How deep does beach sand go?
Also, it's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
@davemccage7918 Here on Grand Cayman as part of Sea Turtle nesting studies, I have seen the turtles dig 2 meters or more 25m from high tide line. When we drive pilings the sand can be 5-10 meters very close to high water line. So I guess 10m (~33 freedom units for my American friends) is a good guess at the the "at least" how deep on the beach the sand is and it is probably more in many locations
@davemccage7918 I live near the sea 1km away & I dug a well it was 47' of marine mud before I got to the sand I have not gone any further yet to see how deep the sand is. It is very pretty sand, white very fine & has tiny sparkly pieces like diamonds in it.
As a freshman in college I found myself desperately clawing the sand over where the sand had collapsed over a dorm mate. We were not able to get to him before the fire department dug his lifeless body from the pit. It happens fast and is nothing to play around with.
Womp womp
The children yearn for the mines
@RichieKrolwhat is wrong with you?
@XxFrooti.loopz23xx I have ankylosing spondylitis and crohns disease. I've been in constant agonizing pain for 13 years and it's turned me evil
@RichieKrol understandable have a nice day
This week a Englishman touring in Rio de Janeiro got stuck in 2 meter hole that him and his fellows digged at Copacabana. Locals needed to save him. Today YouTube recommend this video to me... Algorithm are really paying attention.
I nearly lost one of my brothers one summer down at the beach. The hole we were digging was only maybe 3 feet deep, but for some reason we thought it was a good idea to dig horizontally toward the porch of the motel. He was in the hole when it collapsed. It took us maybe 5 minutes to get him out. Thankfully, his head was in the smallest of air pockets the porch created. It still scares me how close we came to losing him that day. Today, he's an engineer working on some of the larger structural projects around the country. I'm so proud of him!
is your brother 2 feet tall
APR-
uh....
april.... fools....???
@ humans start off small then get less small then slightly more small again
@alexreasoner9919could have been a toddler.
@alexreasoner9919 or possibly fell when the hole collapsed and was too shocked to move in the nanosecond he had to stand up before too much sand covered him. Or when they were digging horizontally, they were on hands & knees and making a tunnel rather than a trench
I've got stuck in snow - didn't actually dig a hole, I quite literally fell through the icy crust on top and down into the powder underneath. I was about six years old and really short for my age, and I was literally stuck up to my neck! Now, I wasn't in danger of dying but I really, really couldn't get out - and not because I couldn't dig my way out. I couldn't MOVE. Even powdery snow can have enough weight to just plain trap a limb. Thankfully there were folks around, the neighbor's teenaged son came with a shovel and helped get me loose - a combination of hauling and digging. It was very funny in a lot of ways, but I'll never forget that strange and scary feeling of being completely pinned in place, unable to move my feet or shift my arms even an inch.
I had the similar expirance when I was 9 yrs old. We had a heavy snowing that year and I climbed on snow pile bc. I was going to buy medication for my younger brother and mo road wasn't a enough space so I escaped from car by climbing on this pile on snow. But it was pretty lose and I fell in 😅
Thankfully I made my breath steady and made my way out like from moving sands (I knew how to escape moving sands)
But if somebody would panic it would be scary.
Yikes. Good thing there was help nearby.
And that’s one of the main dangers of getting stuck in an avalanche. Because the sheer collect weight of it can be enough to trap a limb. Just like sand, it’s individually negligible but on a large scale, it becomes a whole lot heavier.
@kirklanyoshinaga8953 Yup! I can't remember where I saw it but someone was showing exactly that effect, in relation to someone's ski video where the guy nearly got swallowed up. Scary!
this happened to my moms tiny little pug when he was a puppy. luckily we didn't get much snow (probably 6inches or 15cm at the most) and i was able to walk outside and pick him up easily.
12:23 As a water worker... Absolutely a believer that OSHA rules are there because someone was killed/hurt to require those protections for workers.
“Regulations are written in blood.”
Rules written in blood.
Yes, that's exactly why they exist. A lot of people have been hurt or killed by trenches collapsing on job sites.
And every 30 years business almost make us 'forget' about the origins of those pesky regulations
absolutely
I love the hability that I developed during my childhood of building a sand ball that do not crack even after been trown away just working with the correct layring of decreasing level of humidy sand.
A empirical mastering of sand cohesion.
And know I am passing this knowledge to my kids :)
Last year, I was on vacation in Denmark. At the beach, a dune collapsed because two children, around 10 years old, were digging a small hole into the dune. Both were deeply buried under the sand. I was one of the first responders since I was out there surfing. A lot of people helped, but we managed to find them only after more than 30 minutes. Both children died from suffocation.
I don’t mean to be overly cautious, but be careful. Even an adult would most likely have died under this sandmass. And the hole wasn’t that big—just about half the height of a child. But they dug into the dune, and the sand was wet because of heavy rain.
Stay safe out there, and thank you for the educational content. It’s important to know the dangers so you can have fun safely at the beach.
dang that's tough man. I'm sorry you had to experience that. Kiddos doin kid stuff and that happening.... I can't imagine how their parents felt.
Wow that is so awful. Thanks for that information
Sorry to ask a bit of a gruesome question... Was it lack of breathable air or was their chest simply so compressed that they couldn't breathe? I vaguely recall hearing that with partial burials (head above surface) the latter is already deadly.
@hisgross Yeah, it was especially horrible for them.
@marklundeberg7006both are deadly, but after being buried for 30 minutes both would kill you
As a former geotechnical field engineer slopes, cliffs and holes worry me. Seen too many bad excatiins and had a few close calls early in my career. People need to respect the excavations of all kinds.
Learned early on in my career to be wary of hole or trenches of any sort. Got called out to a site to look at a cable that got dug up to restore service to a location.
By the time I got to my truck/tools, grabbed the keys for the site, and got there, pretty much the entire crew had left.
So I let myself in, hopped in the trench (it was about about 2 feet deep), and got to fuckin around with the busted cable. Just some splicing, nothing crazy. But I did have to be digging around a bit and moving in the trench a fair bit, disturbing the soil a decent amount.
It smelled sweet in the trench the whole time.
Wasn't until the next day (after a pretty bad headache that night...) that I was informed that the site was a superfund site due to TCE being dumped there in the 80s. Joy....
@nasonguy degreaser and surfactant always smells so sweet
When I was in 6th grade a classmate, Larry Feeley, was digging a tunnel in a large pile of soil that was part of the construction of a Junior High School. I was told the soil was placed there to compact the ground prior to placing the foundation.
The tunnel collapsed and Larry was killed. I was taken to the funeral home to see Larry, so peaceful, as if asleep. His mom was there.
An extraordinary bright kid, funny, at 12 able to write clearly. He wrote an essay about dropping food on the floor of the cafeteria. I remember the words "treading on a pea."
We used fountain pens and he favored turquoise blue ink.
Rest in peace Larry Feeley, I remember you still after over half a century. What a waste.
RIP
they dug him up just so they could bury him again?
@Hamstray Seriously?!
😢
RIP Larry, thank you for sharing his story
12:00 "If you live in a country with safety laws..."
The fire department I worked for 40 yrs had miles of beach along the Monterey Bay, Calif. We had our fair share of beach hole collapse rescues and recoveries. All kids.
I'm a CSFM senior trench rescue instructor. This is a great video. We train in "live" trenches. It's scary and no B.S. I was part of a successful 13 hour trench rescue many years ago. I tell every firefighter I train," I hope you never have to respond to one of these emergencies".
In our department, we hammer on "High risk/danger, low frequency" things like that. I pray I don't need to use any of that knowledge, but if I do, I'll know what to do & can do my best to save lives.
Wow, How big are the trenches you train in?
@abhaythecuber1837 we dig 2 trenches. an "L' trench. 8' deep on one leg and 10" on the other leg 36" wide.
the second trench is a "T trench. 8' deep. the top of the "T" is approx 30' and the base of the tee is 16' deep by 5' wide
@Julianna.Domina Thanks Julianna. I would add a caveat. After 35 years in the department, I never assume I know what to do. When I was at the 13 hour rescue, being a senior instructor, Rescue Captain, SME, I got nearly broken. Everyone (70 people and multiple agencies) were looking at me for a solution. I did everything I was trained to do and it was 2 steps forward and 1 step back. It was the only time in may career that I said to myself, "I wish I wasn't here". Don't ever say" I'll know what to do". Say, "I think this will work"
Johnny
What I like most about this video is that it explains several observations anybody who has ever built a sand castle with a moat on the beach has experienced and has grown to expect with a natural intuition. Like the fact that when you step on the sand close to the water line it lifts up and "dries out", or that wet sand is stable until it gets wetter. We all have an intuition that this is what will happen, but seeing it explained within the context of engineering is so cool, like the explanation of why the sky and cigarette smoke are both blue due to light fraction on tiny suspended particles.
@KoopaRipper-dk8sz Today is April 1st
Cigarette smoke is blue?
I’m glad i wasn’t the only one thinking the exact same thing very interesting too see why and why i believe physics is one of the most important things to learn and understand
It's what I love about intro engineering classes. Take these intuitive concepts, bring them all together, and describe them in mathematically robust ways.
You just explained nearly more than I've learned in 5 years of working in geotechnical engineering! Well done.
I live in an area near a lot of beaches and there have been cases unfortunately of children digging holes/falling into them and either getting injured or suffocating when the walls collapsed which has resulted in fatalities. When rules were put in place banning beach holes on certain beaches the media liked to politicise the matter as 'ridiculous' but most people don't realise how deadly they can be
Shame on those media outlets. Journalistic integrity means accurately conveying risks, so that people will understand the seriousness of something that sounds silly at first glance.
@pendlera2959 There is no journalistic integrity anymore, and hasn't been for years sadly. It's all about the views and polarizing gets views.
Problem is the dead people do not get to talk.
Banning holes entirely is definitely also the wrong response
@PracticalEngineeringChannel - 2025-04-01
🏞Lots of cool stuff (plus my book) available at the PE store: https://store.practical.engineering/
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@WilliamHowell-q4g - 2025-04-01
@feedthechunk9836 - 2025-04-01
The angle of repose. you're only second person in my life that understands the angle of repose. Use to work in the glass industry and the number of times I've seen people install a conveyor to move glass and the glass just rolls down the conveyor. you tell them that they,ve exceeded the angle of repose and they say "???"
@GMC997 - 2025-04-01
Nice beard bro.
@Lorenzozolezzi - 2025-04-01
4-5 ft is a good size to dig a sand hole. As a native to California, I recommend this is good since it can be dug quickly. It's short enough to reach the cooler sand, and its not so much that it can't be filled back in to a level grade. It's also the the average height of a young adult making it easy to rescue one even if several feet have collapsed. But please, fill it back up, it'd be worse to trip in one a break a leg then get buried..
@halfkimmy - 2025-04-01
stop thinking schools can do anything other then tell you to copy out of a book...my teacher almost got fired for doing a fully safe lab out of the book in front of the class