Groundbreaking 3D mapping of previously inaccessible areas of the Antarctic has found that the sea ice fringing the vast continent is thicker than previous thought.

Two expeditions to Antarctica by scientists from the UK, USA and Australia analyzed an area of ice spanning 500,000 metres squared, using a robot known as SeaBed.

The survey discovered ice thickness average between 1.4 m and 5.5 m, with a maximum ice thickness of 16 m. Scientists also discovered that 76% of the mapped ice was ‘deformed’, meaning that huge slabs of ice have crashed into each other to create larger, denser bodies of ice.

The team behind the research, published in Nature Geo-science, have hailed it as an important breakthrough in better understanding the vast icy wilderness. The findings will provide a starting point to further work to discover how ice thickness, as well as extent, is changing.

Previously, measurements of Antarctic ice thickness were hindered by technological constraints. Ice breaking ships could only go so far into ice to measure depth, while no-one had drilled much more than 5.5 m down into the ice to extract a core for analysis.

SeaBed, an autonomous underwater vehicle (or AUV), was used by the research team to analyze ice thickness at an underwater depth of 20 to 30 meters. Driven in a “lawnmower” pattern, the two-meter long robot used upward-looking sonar to measure and map the underside of sea ice floes. Oceanography robots are usually focused on the sea floor.

The mapping took place during two expeditions, in 2010 and 2012, that took researchers to the coastal areas of the Weddell, Bellingshausen and Wilkes Land regions of Antarctica. The teams came from the British Antarctic Survey, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies in Tasmania and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US.

Dr. Guy Williams, from IMAS, said the research is an important step in gauging changes to Antarctic ice.

“Sea ice is an important indicator of the polar climate but measuring its thickness has been tricky,” said Williams, the report’s co-author. “Along with the satellite data, it was a bit like taking an X-ray of the ice, although we haven’t X-rayed much of it, just a postage stamp.

An antiquated shark, the biggest to ever live, likely went terminated around 2.6 million years back, researchers have found.

While scientists don’t know why titan, 60-foot-long Megalodon sharks went terminated, researchers now have a superior assessment for when it happened.

Most Megalodon fossils go over to the center Miocene Epoch (15.9 million to 11.6 million years prior) and the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 million to 2.6 million years back).

The specialists in the new study distinguished 42 of the latest fossils in the wake of sorting through the Paleobiology Database – a vast online accumulation of fossil information.

The group utilized the Optimal Linear Estimation (OLE) strategy to gauge when the Megalodon ceased to exist, ‘Live Science’ reported.

Each of the 42 fossils was entered into the database with an upper and lower date gauge for when it showed up. The specialists ran 10,000 recreations, and every reproduction chose a date for every fossil some place between the upper and lower limit.

The procedure doesn’t pinpoint the accurate date when an animal categories went wiped out, however rather gives the date by which, factually, it can be accepted that an animal types has become terminated, said Chris Clements, an exploration right hand at the University of Zurich, who took a shot at the study.

“We get 10,000 appraisals for the time the species has become terminated by, and after that we take a gander at the appropriation of those evaluations through time,” Clements said.

The thought is to distinguish the point where a large portion of the evaluations group. The results for the Megalodon fossils set that point for this species at 2.6 million years prior.

Recently, the researchers have revealed the evidence of a destructive earthquake that brought a tsunami on the Kauai’s Island about 500 years ago and there is a possibility that a similar event could hit Hawaii’s shores in the coming future.

The Live Science reported, “The earthquake with the magnitude of 9.0 happened in Alaska and brought 30-foot tall waves to Hawaii between 1425 and 1665. In contrast, the resulting tsunami was at least 3 times the size of a tsunami that caused damage in Hawaii in 1946.”

The study is published in the ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ journal. The researchers investigated a sinkhole 328 feet from shore with walls 23 feet high. David Burney, a paleoecologist at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo, discovered the site back in the late 1990s, but his theory that a massive tsunami left the ocean debris found in the sinkhole was not verified until now.

In a recent study, Honolulu officials have modified their tsunami evacuation maps in case a destructive tsunami hits the region of around a million residents. As per the American Geophysical Union press release, the evacuation areas will be more than double in some locations on the new maps.

A tsunami, to the size of the one in the study is projected to happen once every 1000 years, making the odds that it will happen in any given year quite small at 1%.

Butler, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa stated that, “People have to at least appreciate that the possibility is there.”

The sinkhole left by the tsunami that struck 500 years ago holds a layer of sediment with distinct traces of the ocean: coral fragments, mollusk shells and beach sand. The sediment remained a mystery until the 2011 Tohoku earthquake hit Japan and pulled tall, damaging waves inland to flood the island nation.

Butler further stated that, “The Japan’s earthquake was bigger than almost any seismologist ever thought. The live coverage showed the devastation it caused, I wonder, did we get it right in Hawaii? Are our evacuation zones the correct size?”

Apple intends to unveil several new products at its upcoming October launch event. The company has already sent the invitations for this event. Apple has not yet announced anything regarding the details of the event. It seems like it is a tradition of Apple to keep everything secretive in order to create more hype for the future products.

However, rumors suggest that Apple will release iPad 6, iPad mini 3, new Mac, OS Y Yosemite and numerous other devices in it.

Apple has organized this special event on the 16^th of October in California. The event will begin at 6 p.m by UK time.

In this review, we will cover the basic details of the products that the company planned to release in October.

Apple TV:

It’s nearly a year since Apple upgraded its media streamer with any major update. Therefore, the company might unveil a new hardware or minor software update for Apple TV.

According to rumors, Apple plans to release the voice feature of Siri in the future Apple TV update. However, the company has not yet declared anything but Siri feature would certainly be a big help for its users.

On the other hand, some speculations proposed that the company might probably release a brand new Apple TV set.  No doubt, it would be a big surprise for the Apple TV lovers if company flaunted something as huge as new Apple TV set instead of minor updates.

iPod Touch:

It looks like in this event Apple is merely determined to upgrade and launch things for old products. The last update for iPod Touch was released two years back in 2012.

However, latest rumors indicate towards an update rather than a new iPod Touch as it is pretty difficult to launch a new iPod Touch for the company at this time.

Some people believe that the wide range of iPhones and smartphone affected negatively to the iPod market. Nevertheless, it is not true there are still millions of iPod users who prefer the iPod Touch over latest phones.

The best way to make assumptions is to look back on the trend of the company. In August Apple slashed the price of iPod Touch which signifies that the company is all set to release a new iPod Touch 6^th generation.

MacBook Air Retina:

This is one of the most disliked rumors associated with the October event. The chief reason behind this is that the rumor related to the arrival of new MacBook Air Retina is hovering since last two years. People are now fed up of this waiting tradition of Apple.

There are people who still think that Apple will unveil a new MacBook Air retina in this event. However, some rumors recently surfaced which stated that the Apple would not the new 12 inch ultraportable laptop with a Retina display till the beginning of the next year.

4K Display:

Earlier some rumors proposed the release of a 4K display, which supports connection with a MacBook Pro or MacBook pro Retina.

As per the news of Digi Times there might be a 27 inch 5K Retina iMac display at the upcoming event. If these rumors are true, then you cannot expect a 4K display from Apple at least in this event.

OS X Y Yosemite release:

In June Apple flaunted the first look of the new Mac operating system. The company showed OS X Y Yosemite in the Apple World Wide Developer Conference.  The company sets out the operating system in beta form, whereas the full launch of OS X Y Yosemite is expected in this event.