That Carolina Bay article is so full of errors and misconceptions, that it is hardly worth taking seriously. I won't address all of them, but here are a few points to consider:
Although the Bay Rims date from the Pleistocene-holocene boundary, the bays themselves do not. They are contemporaneous with the fluviomarine terraces upon which they occur, and therefore, were not all formed at once, but sequentially; as sea level dropped and each new terrace was exposed, new bays were formed. The arrangement of bays on the landscape is not random; The largest bays on each terrace are concentrated just below the toe of the landward scarp, and average bay size decreases seaward along each terrace. That pattern repeats on each terrace. The phenomenon is CLEARLY hydrologic in nature, and is not related to cataclysm.
I had not heard of Douglas A. Johnson, but I came to conclusions similar to his after 11 years of mapping soils in Carolina Bays in northeastern South Carolina. Howard conveniently overlooks work done in Charleston County, South Carolina (forgive me, I can't cite the literature at the moment, but I could look it up) showing that large bays overlay infilled river channels (incisions that were refilled during a marine transgression). He also neglects the probability that any heat source sufficient to cause explosive vaporization of soil or shallow water would also probably have produced fused glass on the soil surface (the soils in the area having mostly quartz sand in the surface layer). In years of intensive field examination of soil surfaces in the area, I never once found fused glass, and I am not aware that any soil micromorphologists have found shocked quartz in surface layers from the Pee Dee.
Finally, people who plot the long axes of Carolina Bays, and look toward Michigan, are looking in the wrong direction. The bays all point DOWNHILL, i.e., seaward. They are all pointing in the direction that water travels!
I haven't paid much attention to the Carolina Bays since (ahem) you scolded me a couple years ago. (Now, the Carolina Dog is a whole 'nother story)
I may not be following your argument, but if you'll take a look at the bays with Google Earth, you'll find the bays are in fact very random. They tend to occur in clusters AND in bands roughly following the present coastline when they occur. There are large gaps between visible bays along the coast.
If Google Earth is any good, elevation seems to play a part the placement of the bays. I found only one small cluster at a current elevation under `35 feet. An anomoly within an enigma??? Or maybe it was one of those beaver ponds???
My best guesstimate is that there are no visible bays within roughly 2 - 3 miles of the present coast. I was also unable to find any above a present elevation of about 70 feet. I don't know what to make of that.
In years of intensive field examination of soil surfaces in the area, I never once found fused glass, and I am not aware that any soil micromorphologists have found shocked quartz in surface layers from the Pee Dee.
FWIW, it looks like a giant orange slush may have hit the ground; or nearly hit the ground. IOW, something relatively soft like a snowball or snowcone. Impossible? I haven't a clue.
There is another report I read a while back whilst searching for God-knows-what that mentioned velocities of various objects floating, er, sailing around the universe. Seems these things are in a hurry. But the earth itself is also in a hurry. The point I wonder about is what would happen if a comet/meteor/whatever traveling only somewhat faster than our earth(if possible) gradually overtook the earth and entered the atmosphere at a speed approaching something we can wrap our brains around(or at least mine)?
They are all pointing in the direction that water travels!
Which coincidentally is roughly from a more or less single point landward.....around Michigan??? That is to say, the ejecta such as it is, all point towards the ocean.
The bays have become a curiousity to me that I check on from time to time to see what's new. Usually nothing, but the discussions still continue because there has not been a concensus reached by the "scientific community". Fact is, they may never be explained to everyone's satisfaciton. Too bad really.
FGS
Very interesting reference, Ren. Could you could look it up and post the author and publication of the work (in Charlerston County, S.C) showing that "large Carolina bays overlay infilled river channels (incisions that were refilled during a marine transgression)"?
It would be great to have this information for my on-going Carolina bay study.
Am I correct that this work (paper, presentation, data?) is evidence confounding to the recent and simultaneous origin of bays as some propose. How so? If I may, what is the relevance of infilled river channels and marine transgressions?
I am not geologist but do not understand.
Perhaps reading the paper can help. Thanks to you, and FGS, for posting.
Thanks Renfield, for the post and the FReepmail.
A Re-evaluation Of The Extraterrestrial Origin Of The Carolina BaysAbstract: Controversy as to the origin of the Carolina Bays has centered on terrestrial versus extraterrestrial theories. Meteoritic impact has been considered the primary causal mechanism in extraterrestrial models, but alternatives such as comets and asteroids have not been adequately considered. Comets may explode during fall and produce depressions which would conform to the morphology of the Bays. Only a comet appears to satisfy the constraints imposed both by extraterrestrial requirements and observed terrestrial characteristics.
by J. Ronald Eyton & Judith I. Parkhurst (April 1975)
Luis E. Ortiz & Susan Gross, editors