SEDIMENTOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND AGES OF RIM SANDS ASSOCIATED WITH CAROLINA BAYS IN BLADEN AND HOKE COUNTIES, NORTH CAROLINA

The timing of and factors affecting the formation of Carolina Bays continue to be of great interest. The current body of data strongly suggests multiple episodes of development. Our efforts to better understand Carolina Bays include documentation of their spatial characteristics and categorization of form in south-central North Carolina. Additionally, we have sampled rim sands from the eastern and southeastern margins of Jones Lake, in Bladen County, and from the 211 Sand pit, an active mine in southern Hoke County, to help quantify their sedimentological characteristics. Three pits were excavated along the rim of Jones Lake allowing access to deposits proximal to the bay lake margin, near the rim peak, and rim deposits farthest from the bay center. These deposits include shoreface to eolian facies. Four samples were collected from the Jones Lake rim pits and one sample from near the base of the 211 Sand pit for age determination by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methodology. In effort to further resolve the timing of formation, we offer the first OSL dates on Carolina Bay deposits from North Carolina as a contribution to a growing body of dates from South Carolina and Georgia.