What started as an unusual pink phenomenon on the shores of Petrel Bay has led to a surprising discovery.
The culprit for this colorful sand is garnet, a mineral remnant of an ancient Antarctic mountain range that was previously hidden beneath miles of ice.
Scientists were initially puzzled by the pink sand, but soon determined it was garnet. However, the mineral’s age and origin remained a mystery. Further investigation revealed that the garnet was a whopping 590 million years old, making it much older than the surrounding strata.
“The garnet is too young to have come from the Gawler Craton and too old to have come from the eroded Adelaide Fold Belt.” Charmaine Felhart saysHe is a PhD student at the University of Adelaide and the leader of the research team.
“Garnet formation requires high temperatures and is usually associated with the formation of large mountain ranges, but at this time South Australia’s crust was relatively cool and not mountainous.”
Research results Journal Communications Earth & Environment, The garnets clearly did not come from local source rocks, but they were known to have been transported from nearby, as garnets are often destroyed by prolonged exposure to the marine environment.
They found that glacial deposits of the Cape Jervis Formation, exposed along the South Australian coastline, contain layers of garnet-bearing sand that are also about 590 million years old.
The find suggests the existence of an ancient mountain range in Antarctica, which is now buried under the continent’s vast ice sheets. The garnets likely underwent a long journey, likely deposited by glaciers millions of years ago, before being reformed on the South Australian coast by modern waves and tides.
This pink sand is more than just a beautiful sight – it’s a window into our planet’s deep history and the secrets buried beneath the ice.