Special Physiographic Features, Part 3
Carolina Bays
• Carolina Bays are mysterious features common along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. There are approximately 500,000 known between northern Florida and southern New Jersey.
• Bays are shallow, oval-shaped depressions with the long axis oriented S 50 E, and having a raised rim of sand on the east and southeast side.
Topographic map (above) shows Carolina Bays in Virginia’s Eastern Shore near Exmore. The arrow indicates a large bay, but many others are present on the map. Strong Pleistocene winds blowing toward the southeast may have helped create these.
• Age of the bays is thought to be approximately 100,000 to 200,000 years old.
• Many theories of origin have been proposed, including:
• meteorite swarm impact
• ancient bays or lagoons
• Pleistocene fish beds.
• The latest idea suggests that the bays may have been formed by strong winds blowing in one direction across water ponded in shallow surface depressions.