Question: I am playing Minecraft with the [Oceancraft](http://www.minecraftmods.com/oceancraft/) mod installed. Among other things, this adds quicksand, which if you step in you begin to sink and slowly suffocate. 

Once you have stepped in quicksand - is there any way to avoid your untimely demise? I've tried walking out of it but when I get to the last block I can't jump over it. I've also tried digging up the neighboring blocks and the offending quicksand itself but I still drown. 

Is there any way to avoid drowning in quicksand if you haven't managed to avoid it?

Answer: 
If I meet Quicksand on any map, it mostly appears like

![Quicksand in 3*3*2 + surrounding dirt](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZFawP.jpg)

So if you stepped in it you can easily dig the 2 neighboring blocks in a depth of 2, kinda like this.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HCU17.jpg)

And the you can easily walk off the quicksand the direction you dug.

The most important part is the depth of two blocks to dig, if you just dig one block, it's too high to walk off.
If you have a fast shovel like an efficiency II or a diamond shovel, it is sometimes possible to dig the quicksand you're stuck in, and a jump boost like the Famguide mod's Familiar Rana or a jump boost II beacon can allow you to escape if you don't sink too deep, but a fast shovel will do. But you must try before you sink too deep. If you sink too deep, it's not possible to escape.