THE CAROLINA BAYS

A basic flaw with this theory for the origin of the “white sand” is that intense high temperatures will not burn off iron-coatings, which originally coated the sand. Typically, these iron coatings consist of iron sesquioxides, which contain varying amounts of water. Any high temperatures will first dehydrate the sesquioxides composing these iron coatings and transform them into pure and very stable iron oxide. As a result, high temperatures will cause opposite from what is argued above to happen. Instead, it will solidly fuse the iron coatings onto the sand grains. Because, the temperature needed to vaporize any iron oxides is greater than the melting point of quartz, the sand will melt into glass long before any iron oxides coating them will be burned off.

In addition, the "white sand" comprising the rims of the Carolina Bays is not unique to them as the above theory incorrectly presumes. The "white sands" found in the rims of the Carolina Bays are identical to well-developed E Horizons, which are found in deeply weathered sandy soils throughout the coastal plains of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, including Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana , and Texas, as is documented in the USDA county soil surveys for this region. Soil Scientists have known for a long time that such E horizons are created by weak organic acids, which strip iron coatings from the sand grains.

In soils in which the water table fluctuates, the iron can/will be stripped off when the iron-coated sand is submerged beneath the water table and the iron becomes soluble because of reducing conditions.
When the water table drops, the dissolved iron leaves with it precipitates as both magnetic and nonmagnetic iron oxides elsewhere. It is not necessarily contradictive to the impact theory, though, if the white sand comes from an older period and has only experienced slight modifications due to the impact exposing the sand.

After the impact theory as an explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs has gained credibility among most scientists, more research has been taken in this direction, and more and more impact sites and associated changes are recognised.

That also rejuvenated the discussion about the Carolina Bays. In favor of the impact argument, Buckyballs, or C-60 has been reported from the area of a number of the Carolina Bays. This is a spherical material that floats in water, conglomerations of which can be seen sometimes with a microscope, other times with just a hand lens. It is created after carbon is put under high pressure. If the presence of buckyballs can be substantiated by other studies, it might provide significant evidence of an impact.

That would also make the bays integral part of various other findings associated with the impact event, like a layer of soot found all over North America, drastic climate change, the end of the Clovis culture, and so on.

Carolina Bays: An Annotated Bibliography by Thomas E. Ross and published by Carolinas Press (ISBN 1-891026-09-7) includes summaries of every academic article published about Carolina bays up to the year 2000.