These bays are found all along the eastern coast of American but the majority of them are found in North and South Carolina which earned them the name Carolina Bays. These bays are large, shallow elliptical depressions, which have long axes that are aligned in the same general direction, northwest to southwest. The bays tend to range in size from three acres all the way to thousands of acres. Many of these bays are found in the middle Costal Plain of South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. But some bays have been found in South Carolina s upper and lower Coastal Plain as well.
Bays can form bog swamps or stay dry savannahs for most of the year.
A small number of bays can form permanent lakes, which contain deep accumulations of organic soils. Some have been drained to use as farmland. In the 1930 s geologists stated that the number of Carolina Bays in South Carolina was about four hundred thousand, but recent surveys have shown that this number was highly exaggerated. The number of Bays in South Carolina that has been recorded is about 410. A few of the remaining bays are Wood's Bay and Cartwheel Bay.