fluid is a mixture of water and amine oxide surfactant and an anionic surfactant a simple mixture of the three components is utilized standard mixing procedures known in the art can be employed since heating of the solution and special agitation conditions are normally not necessary of course if used under conditions of extreme cold such as found in alaska normal heating procedures should be employed it has been found in some instances preferable to dissolve the thickener into a lower molecular weight alcohol prior to mixing it with the aqueous solution the lower molecular weight alcohol for instance isopropanol functions as an aid to solubilize the thickener other similar agents may also be employed further a defoaming agent such as a polyglycol maybe employed to prevent undesirable foaming during the preparation of the viscoelastic fluid if a foam is not desirable under the conditions of the treatment if a form or gas energized fluid is desired any gas such as air nitrogen carbon dioxide and the like may be added the fluid of this invention is particularly useful in the handling of particles generated during the excavation of a geologic formation e g digging drilling blasting dredging tunneling and the like for example in the course of constructing roads bridges buildings mines tunnels and the like the particles are mixed with the viscoelastic fluid by means which are effective to disperse the particles in the fluid the particles generally have a particle size ranging from a fine powder to coarse gravel e g dust sand and gravel particle size affects the suspendability of.