[meteorite-list] Professor Rejects Meteor Theory of Carolina Bays'Origin

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Mar 29 10:41:54 2006
Message-ID: <004c01c652e2$509c60b0$ed23e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,


    Fewer subjects have had more idiocy babbled
about them than the Carolina Bays. This "analysis"
is a perfect example. If I wanted an expert opinion
on the meteoritic origin of an enigmatic geological
feature, who better to go than a BOTANIST?

    He, for example, cites the clustering of the bays
as a non-impact feature since everybody knows
"meteorites are random." Will somebody please tell
this jerk what a strewn field is?

    I suggest you look at this summary of impact evidence:
<http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/cbayint.html>

    This is a fairly well-done piece by a couple of graduate
students in Geography at the University of Illinois, despite
a few bouts with foot-in-mouth disease, such as "the area
where Carolina Bays are abundant adjoins a large area
from Alabama to Virginia, including much of Tennessee
and Kentucky, where meteorites are abundant." Yup,
there's a lot of bolides up in them thar hills...

    There is no "conventional" meteoritic evidence:
"No meteoritic fragments have been found that are
genetically related to the Carolina Bays. No known
meteorite falls elsewhere in the world have resulted
in approximately half a million depressions over a
wide area. Studies of magnetic anomalies associated
with individual bays are not conclusive (MacCarthy,
1936; Prouty, 1952). Shatter cones and high pressure
changes in quartz grains associated with known
impact craters are absent. The heavy mineralogy of
sediments within one bay did not differ from sediments
beyond the bay rim (Preston and Brown, 1964)."

    On the other hand, geology seems to both flounder
and flourish with explanations. "Marine theories include
sand bar dams across drowned valleys (Glenn, 1895);
swales in underwater sand dunes (Glenn, 1895);
submarine scour by eddies, currents and undertow
(Melton, 1934); progressive lagoon segmentation
(Cooke, 1934); gyroscopic eddies (Cooke, 1940;
1954); and fish nests created by the simultaneous
waving of fish fins in unison over submarine artesian
springs (Grant, 1945). Subaerial hypotheses include
artesian spring sapping (Toumey, 1848); peat burning
by paleo-Indians (Wells and Boyce, 1953); eolian
deflation and/or deposition (Raisz, 1934; Price, 1951,
1958, 1968; and Carson and Hussey, 1962); solution
(Johnson, 1936; Lobeck, 1939; Le Grand, 1953; and
Shockley and others, 1956); periglacial thaw lakes
Wolfe, 1953); wind deflation combined with perched
water tables and lake shore erosion at a 90o angle
to the prevailing wind (Thom, 1970); artesian spring
sapping and eolian deposition (Johnson, 1936); and
progressive lagoon segmentation modified by eolian
processes stabilized by climatic changes (Price, 1951,
1958, 1968)."

    Myself, I like the "simultaneous waving of fish fins"
as an explanation of an enigmatic geological feature.
I can see it now, done as a cartoon ballet in the style
of Disney's Fantasia. Now, THAT'S Real Science!

    Backing up on that URL above will get you a whole
menu of sites about the Carolina Bays, many of them
seriously whacko, but that's what you get with
"unexplained" phenomena on the Internet. Their key
mysterious features are their number (half a million
of them), their regularity of form, their common orientation,
their extreme shallowness, their low rim heights.

    The two geographers settle on air-bursts from
shallow trajectory cometary fragments as the most
likely origin (which I think beats out the fish-fin theory).
But it's hard to picture a half million Tunguskas! An
orbital swarm of a half million mini-Tunguskas is a
pretty frightening picture.

    It is also worth noting that all the geological theories
of their origins are based on the erroneous notion that
the Carolina Bays are all to be found in only one type
of geological terrain, the coastal plains. But they have
since been found in other terrain types, which effectively
rules out most of the prior geological theories (except
for those fish fins, of course).

    I love a Mystery.


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 10:46 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Professor Rejects Meteor Theory of Carolina
Bays'Origin


>
> http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2006/03/28/news/doc4428a99f752a6396001544.txt
>
> Mysterious wetlands
>
> Citadel professor rejects meteor theory of Carolina bays' origin
>
> By S.W. SHOPTAW
> The Times and Democrat
> March 28, 2006
>
> Were they formed by the impact of a meteor striking the Earth or are
> they merely sink holes? The answer to how Carolina bays were formed is
> not something about which scientists agree.
>
> Carolina bays are geological depressions of mysterious origin that occur
> throughout the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas and Georgia. They take
> their name from the evergreen bay trees that typically characterize them.
>
> On March 19, Dr. Richard Porcher, a professor of biology and director of
> the herbarium at The Citadel, gave a presentation on Carolina bays to
> the Friends of Santee National Wildlife Refuge.
>
> Porcher is an authority on the flora of South Carolina and the author of
> "Wildflowers of the Carolina Low Country and Lower Pee Dee" and
> co-author of "A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina and Low
> Country: The Natural Landscape."
>
> "First described around 1750 by naturalist John Bartram, a large
> concentration of Carolina bays is found in South Carolina's coastal
> plain, some 4,000, but they also occur in southeastern North Carolina
> and northeastern Georgia," Porcher said.
>
> Carolina bays are isolated wetlands in natural shallow depressions,
> which are largely fed by rain and shallow groundwater, he said. These
> elliptical-shaped bays generally have a northwest to southeast
> orientation and vary in size from less than an acre to many acres,
> Porcher said. Water levels are normally lowest in autumn and highest in
> early spring, he said, adding that some Carolina Bays are wet all year
> while others fill with water, then dry up, depending on the season."
>
> "Carolina bays are wetlands that are not associated with moving water.
> These wetlands are rich in wildlife. I would not even begin to talk
> about the wildlife, - amphibians, reptiles and other animals. That is a
> whole different field," he said.
>
> Different researchers believe Carolina bays are 30,000 to 100,000 years
> old or older, Porcher said, yet scientists are not certain of their
> origins. One theory suggests that a meteor hit Earth thousands of years
> ago, breaking into pieces that made dents as they skipped across the
> planet's surface, he said, noting that this is not a theory he accepts.
>
> "The bays are clumped and not randomly located. I have used this against
> a shower of meteorites because a shower of meteorites would seem to form
> a random pattern. These bays are discretely in certain areas, and even
> in a clump they seem to march in a line," Porcher said. "To me, it is
> difficult to get that type of pattern from a shower of meteorites."
>
> He said one of the features of the Carolina bays is normally that they
> have a high, elevated sand ridge along their southeastern side. In
> keeping with the meteorite theory, the meteorite struck and pushed out a
> depression, Porcher said, and as it struck, it pushed up a sand ridge.
> Some of these elevations have multiple sand ridges.
>
> "So, if you believe a meteorite hit, you have to believe a meteorite
> struck here and pushed up the first ridge. Another struck right behind
> it and pushed up the second and so on," he said. "Some of these bays
> have six or seven ridges."
>
> Another theory on the creation of Carolina bays is that they were formed
> over a long period of time. Some think they were formed by artisan
> wells, or sink holes. However, as Porcher explained, there are "holes"
> is all these theories, so the bottom line is no one theory holds water.
> They are puzzling, unsolved, geological phenomena, he said.
>
> The majority of the bays have been drained for farmland, Porcher said,
> adding that there are two types of bays, a clay base and a peat base.
> The clay base holds water for a longer period of time, he said, and the
> plants have a period of time to establish. The peat bay has a deep layer
> of peat that protects the plants and gives them water during the dry
> season.
>
> Porcher led a field trip to Carolina bay near the Santee National
> Wildlife Refuge. He explained that the bays have to be burned off
> periodically to reduce tree growth in the bay. The last time the area
> bay caught on fire, July 4, the fire was so hot and the smoke so thick
> that the blaze had to be extinguished to reduce the smoke along
> Interstate 95, Porcher said. This prevented the purging of the wood
> growth in the bay, so the eastern portion of the bay has wood growth
> along its banks.
>
> One of the benefits of the Carolina bays is to hold water during times
> of high rains, Porcher said. The bays can hold a large amount of water
> and will prevent flooding along the coastlines, he said.
>
> Currently, there is a program to restore the bays that have been damaged
> by farming, Porcher said. The benefits of Carolina bays helping to
> prevent flood have been recognized, he said, and efforts to restore as
> many bays as possible are under way.
>
Received on Tue 28 Mar 2006 10:38:58 PM PST