Singletary Lake, surrounded by

Singletary Lake State Park Singletary Lake State Park is a North Carolina state park in Bladen County, North Carolina in the United States. Located near Elizabethtown, it covers , including Singletary Lake, one of the largest Carolina bays. Singletary Lake State Park is ...

Bladen County Bladen County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, is one of a series of

Carolina bay Carolina bays are elliptical to circular depressions concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard within coastal New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida.Kaczorowski, R. T. (1977) '' ...

lakes that stretch from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Recent work by the U.S. Geological Survey has interpreted the Carolina Bays as relict thermokarst lakes that formed several thousands of years ago when the climate was colder, drier, and windier.Swezey, C.S. (2020) "Quaternary eolian dunes and sand sheets in inland locations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain Province", in Inland Dunes of North America (N. Lancaster and P. Hesp, eds.), Springer Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 11-63. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-40498-7_2 ISBN 978-3-030-40498-7 Thermokarst lakes develop by thawing of frozen ground (permafrost) and by subsequent modification by wind and water. Thus, this interpretation suggests that permafrost once extended as far south as the Carolina Bays during the last ice age and (or) previous ice ages. Singletary Lake is not fed by any stream, but relies entirely upon

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

. The land beneath and surrounding the lake is mica-rich sandy clay and sand that is from the

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', th ...

era with a thin layer of

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

deposits covering it. This land is lower than the surrounding land and drains very poorly, creating Singletary Lake. The southwest corner of the lake is bordered by a bog that is densely covered by bay trees. A sandy rim on the southeast side of the lake supports very little vegetation.

Venus Flytrap The Venus flytrap (''Dionaea muscipula'') is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina. It catches its prey—chiefly insects and arachnids—with a trapping ...

s can be found in the margin between the bog and the sand rim. Singletary Lake is the deepest of the Carolina Bays at 11.8 feet (3.6 m) but not the largest. It covers with four miles (6.43 km) of shoreline. Since Singletary Lake is not fed by streams and relies upon rainwater the level of the lake varies with the amount of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

in the area. Most bay lakes, such as Singletary Lake, are completely surrounded by vegetation. Trees and shrubs that grow along the shoreline reduce current and wave action. This permits

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

s to settle and stimulates plant growth. As the plants die off

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

is produced. The peat accumulates on the shore line and more plants grow atop the peat. Very slowly the forest surrounding the lake will creep into the lake, reducing the size of the lake before eventually a swampy forest stands where a lake once was. This process has reduced the size of Singletary Lake by at least 44%. The lake was established as a North Carolina State Lake in 1929, and it is managed by the adjacent

References

* {{authority control Lakes of North Carolina Protected areas of Bladen County, North Carolina Protected areas established in 1929 Bodies of water of Bladen County, North Carolina

See also

References