Core distribution of Carolina bays.  Carolina bays are known to occur from the Delmarva Peninsula south to southern Georgia.  Although many historical texts frequently cite the distribution range of Carolina bays as occurring from New Jersey south to Florida, the more narrow range from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern Georgia is more accurate.  Conversations with state agencies and personnel from all states included in the broader range of Carolina bays confirm their “apparent absence” in southern New Jersey and northern Florida.  The core distribution of Carolina bays is located in northeast South Carolina and southeast North Carolina (darker gray).  The bays in this region would be considered “classic” Carolina bays (i.e., matching all of the well-known and consistent geomorphological criteria in the literature), whose geomorphology is described well by Prouty (1952) and Ross (2003).  Toward the peripheries of the known Carolina bay distribution range, the term Carolina bay tends to be used loosely and is not used in its strictest sense (i.e., depression wetlands; Chick Gaddy, pers. comm.).  Figure taken from Ross (2003).