National park
The Pinnacles Desert
Wind-sculpted limestone pillars rising from bare sand, dated by the rust their rock leaves behind.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park near Perth follows geologists Milo Barham and Matej Lipar's sand-caked fieldwork among the limestone spires, hunting a clue that promised to finally settle how old the pillars really are. It traces their unusual method: dating not the rock in front of them, but the rust left behind as older limestone quietly disappeared. You will hear why an answer scientists chased for decades came down to reading iron atom by atom.
This audio guide was created using AI.