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  Evidence for an Extraterrestrial Impact Origin of the Carolina Bays on
  the Atlantic Coast of North America

Howard, G. A.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Howard,+G&fullauthor=Howard,%20G.%20A.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
West, A.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=West,+A&fullauthor=West,%20A.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
Firestone, R. B.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Firestone,+R&fullauthor=Firestone,%20R.%20B.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
Kennett, J. P.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Kennett,+J&fullauthor=Kennett,%20J.%20P.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
Kimbel, D.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Kimbel,+D&fullauthor=Kimbel,%20D.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
Newell, W.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Newell,+W&fullauthor=Newell,%20W.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>;
Kobres, R.
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/author_form?author=Kobres,+R&fullauthor=Kobres,%20R.&charset=UTF-8&db_key=AST>
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2007, abstract #PP42A-05

    The Carolina Bays, one of the most conspicuous geomorphic features
    on the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States, are a group of
    about 500,000, oriented, crater-like, elliptical lakes, wetlands,
    and depressions, ranging from a few dozen meters to about 11 km in
    length. Although long proposed as impact structures (Melton and
    Schriever, 1933; Prouty, 1934), this origin for the Carolina Bays
    has remained controversial mainly because of an apparent absence of
    associated extraterrestrial materials. Analyses of Bay orientation
    showed that their long axes converge near the Great Lakes,
    suggesting that an impact or airburst over that region may have
    formed the Bays (Eyton and Parkhurst, 1975). However, Bays dates
    have been reported over a wide range, calling into question whether
    all Carolina Bays could have formed simultaneously, although this
    issue remains unresolved and controversial. Many Bay researchers,
    who subscribe to widely differing theories, agree that modern
    Carolina Bays have been subject to repeated modification and that
    they most likely evolved from some type of ancestral depressions.
    Now for the first time, we present conclusive geochemical and
    sedimentary evidence in support of an extraterrestrial connection
    for the Carolina Bays. Analyses of sediment from the rim sands and
    basins of fifteen Bays, widely distributed across North and South
    Carolina, reveal anomalously high abundances of microspherules,
    iridium, fullerenes with ET helium, carbon spherules, glass-like
    carbon, and other potential markers for extraterrestrial impact. No
    such markers were found in paleosols beneath the rim sands or basal
    sediments of the Bays examined. The assemblage of geochemical and
    sediment signatures of extraterrestrial impact found in Bay
    sediments are essentially the same as in the pan-North-American
    Younger Dryas impact boundary layer (the YDB), dated at 12.9 ka. We
    hypothesize that at least some Bays were formed by the YD impact
    during the last deglacial, and we present OSL and radiocarbon
    dating, along with stratigraphic profiling, in support of this age.
    Data from the Carolina Bays we have examined suggest that at least
    some modern Carolina Bays may have evolved from depressions which
    were excavated by primary ejecta, secondary ejecta, and/or the shock
    wave from the Younger Dryas impact event. 

Keywords: 5420 Impact phenomena, cratering (6022, 8136), 6022 Impact
phenomena (5420, 8136), 6240 Meteorites and tektites (1028, 3662), 6250
Moon (1221), 9350 North America
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