The UnchartedX Podcast 026: Talking Carolina Bays with Antonio Zamora!
Apr 3, 2022
Antonio Zamora, an independent researcher and scientist focused on impact processes, delves into the enigma of the Carolina Bays. He discusses their unique elliptical shapes and alignment, proposing the glacier-ice impact hypothesis as a potential explanation for their formation. Zamora shares insights from his experiments, illustrating how ice ejected from impacts could create these intriguing landforms. He also connects the mysteries of the bays to the Younger Dryas, examining implications for megafaunal extinctions and ongoing research challenges.
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Four-Step Glacier Ice Impact Model
- Zamora's Glacier Ice Impact Hypothesis proposes an impact on the ice sheet that ejected ice boulders which created the bays on landing.
- He frames the process as four mechanisms: ice ejection, secondary impacts, inclined conical cavity formation, and viscous relaxation.
Field Trips To Well-Preserved Bays
- Antonio recounts fieldwork visiting well-preserved Carolina Bays and exploring them with others including Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson.
- He recommends Myrtle Beach for seeing well-preserved bays despite modern development covering many sites.
Verify Ellipticity With LiDAR Overlays
- Test ellipticity by overlaying ellipses on LiDAR images and measuring width-to-length ratios for preserved bays.
- Use simple image tools (e.g., GIMP, Google Earth overlays) to verify near-perfect ellipse fits before accepting other origin theories.
