A shocking video demonstrating the power of Alaska’s deadly mud flats has gone viral on the internet months after 20-year-old Zachary Porter drowned at Turnagain Arm.
The alarming footage shows how quickly the black, veined mud flats in Anchorage, Alaska, can swallow a five-pound rock.
In the video, content creator Darren Ak throws a five-pound rock into the mud to show how worryingly quickly it’s being consumed.
Once the rock hits the quicksand-like silt, it disappears from view as water rises up around its edges.
Within a few seconds the rock is no longer visible.
Once the rock hits the quicksand-like silt, it disappears from view as water rises up around its edges
Zachary Porter, 20, a student from Lake Bluff, Illinois, visited Turnagain Arm with friends in May
“Tourists die here, people, they die in the Wadden Sea because of that,” explains Ak in the video posted on his Tiktok account.
“It’ll suck you in,” he warns.
It came just months after a 20-year-old man drowned in Alaska’s famous Turnagain Arm mudflats.
Zachary Porter, a student from Lake Bluff, Illinois, visited the tourist attraction with friends in May.
Tragically, Porter got stuck in the glacier estuary and drowned, despite the best efforts of his friends and firefighters. His body was not recovered until the next morning.
On May 21, Porter and his friends hiked through the mud flats of the Turnagain Arm near Hope, a small community of about 80 people an hour and a half’s drive from Anchorage.
The group was between 50 and 100 feet from shore when Porter got stuck in the softening silt, Girdwood Fire Chief Michelle Weston told the Anchorage Daily News.
State Troopers said one of his friends called 911 immediately after he was stuck around 5:45 p.m. Porter was waist-deep in the mud when the first rescue teams arrived just after 6 p.m.
Turnagain Arm The 77 km long, glacier-carved estuary boasts one of the fastest tides in the world
Tragically, Porter got stuck in the glacier estuary and drowned, despite the best efforts of his friends and firefighters
On May 21, Porter and his friends hiked through the mudflats of the Turnagain Arms near Hope, a small community of about 80 people. Pictured is a view of the small town
Girdwood firefighters and two rescue planes were called at 6:13 p.m. to assist local responders, Weston said, but by the time Girdwood crews arrived at the scene around 7 p.m., Porter was already underwater.
A man who tried to rescue Porter was flown to Anchorage with hypothermia, police officers said.
The fire department is about 47 miles from where Porter was stuck and Weston said it could take up to an hour to drive there.
Carved by glaciers, the 77 km estuary boasts one of the fastest tides in the world.
Porter’s father, Todd Porter, paid tribute to his son by saying that he loves travel and the outdoors.
“They just wanted to have a little adventure before their summer activities started,” he told NBC Chicago.
Alaskan officials believe Porter is the first casualty the Wadden Sea has claimed in decades.
“It’s big, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful and it’s overwhelming,” Kristy Peterson, senior paramedic for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, told the Associated Press.
“But you have to remember that it’s Mother Nature and she has no mercy on humanity.”
The last known fatality in Turnagain Arm was newlywed Adeana Dickison, who drowned when her ATV got stuck in the mud and she got out to push it, only to find she was also trapped.