Heart of the Carolina Bays

High Resolution Topographic Model (HRTM) of a 12,000 hectare landscape at the junction of Robeson, Hoke and Scotland Counties, NC. The floor of the Heart Shaped Bay has a natural elevation of 69 meters above sea level, which would normally be purple in my general distribution survey. Here, Global Mapper’s ability to modify elevation values has been utilized to raise the elevation by 7.1 meters, putting it into the red band for the “heart” color effect. The normal cycling of colors every ten meters persist here, regardless of the offset, allowing for relative comparisons of local relief. Maximum relief differential within the imaged area is `22 meters. The Heart is roughly 3 km x 2 km in size. It has been extensively ditched and now hosts open farmland and tree plantations. The basin is considered by me to be a composite of at least three Carolina bays. Given the basins' long history as hydrologically closed, the floor has filled with many meters of organics and wind-blown sediments. Should it ever be probed by ground penetrating radar, there would likely be signs of the overlap rims under that fill.