::: SD Update: Circles and Patterns, Outer Banks, North Carolina

Circles and Patterns, Outer Banks, North Carolina

A new satellite image study has been posted to the site that includes circular features aligned in rows off the coast of North Carolina near the Outer Banks. Anomalous areas can also be seen here that contain unusual patterns that may be artificial in origin. An interesting similarity is the fact that these features seem to mimic the shape of the Carolina Bays that can be found along the East coast of the US. However, these features are much smaller than the Bays. Scientists are still unsure how the Bays were formed but the most popular theory is a meteor event although no evidence of meteoric residue has ever been found. It's possible the circular features throughout the Bahamas and Cuba could also be related to those in Florida and along the Eastern Coast of the US.

The discovery of the ancient city of Akroteri on the island of Santorini was made by a local landowner who noticed numerous circular sink holes on his land.  One day while inspecting his land, he fell into one of the sink holes and discovered the lost city of Akroteri below.  The  smaller circular features in Florida, the Bahamas, the Keys, Cuba, the Caycos Islands, NC and along the East coast may not be evidence of meteor strikes, but they could be evidence of something below ground.  This is a possibility that has been overlooked by researchers and theorists as to how the Carolina bays and similar circular features were formed.  Perhaps they could be artificial in origin.  The jury is still out.

Carolina Bays
"The precise geomorphologic process responsible for creating these extraordinary features has long been debated, and more than a dozen theories of origin are commonly cited in the Carolina Bay literature: * 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 tWolfe, 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).

In general, however, the debate is properly divided into two camps: those who propose a number of terrestrial mechanisms operating together to form the Bays, and others who conclude that a single encounter with a space borne object best accounts for their unusual characteristics. The fifty odd year exchange between these two groups reveals a fundamental division of geological science and, indeed, other earth and human historical sciences. The question at hand is an old one: Are all earth's features and geological phenomena best explained by slow mechanisms, identifiable today and operating over long periods of time -- or is it reasonable to include dramatic, if seemingly rare, catastrophic events as punctuating factors in earth's evolution? The search for the origin of the Carolina Bays is heavily, and negatively, influenced by this wider dispute.

Field surveys were notable for their failure to locate any meteoritic material, or other features traditionally associated with meteor strikes (Ray Kacrowski, 1977, Carolina Bays: A Comparison with Modern Oriented Lakes, p 25-35). The researchers, however, should not be faulted for their lack of determination. Hundreds of Bays were examined in difficult field conditions (Savage) and included detailed magnetometer surveys suggesting buried material in certain locations, but failing to locate samples or produce consistent results ."