Reply to Holliday et al. regarding the Carolina Bays

Abstract

The paper by Holliday, et al. (2023) tries to establish that the major axes of the elliptical Carolina Bays are not oriented toward the Great Lakes and that the bays are well documented ice-melt landforms known as kettles. Both of these propositions are inaccurate. The paper relies on outdated references from before LiDAR was in common use and before the Nebraska basins had been discovered. The orientations of the Carolina Bays can be determined accurately by fitting them with ellipses using the least squares method. The argument that the Carolina Bays are ice-melt landforms can be dismissed by referencing the extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and permafrost during the Last Glacial Maximum.