Take a walk along a beach in parts of South Australia, and you may come across unusual patches of pink sand. When a team of geologists began analysing samples of this mysterious sand to find out where it comes from, their search took them back through time to a previously undiscovered mountain range in Antarctica. In this episode Sharmaine Verhaert, a PhD candidate in earth sciences at the University of Adelaide, explains how the discovery was made.

This episode was produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.

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Further reading:

• South Australia’s enigmatic pink sand was born in ice-covered Antarctic mountains, new research shows
• Australian amber has revealed ‘living fossils’ traced back to Gondwana 42 million years ago
• The Anthropocene epoch that isn’t – what the decision not to label a new geological epoch means for Earth’s future