Researchers have been able to create the first three dimensional map of sea ice in the Antarctic using an underwater robot.

Researchers have created the first three dimensional map of sea ice in the Antarctic using an underwater robot.

The results of the study show that the sea ice is actually thicker than experts had previously estimated.

Ted Maksym, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist said, "This is really the first Autonomous Underwater Vehicle mission where we could get detailed maps of ice. It is a lot like the advances drones have which enable people to do airborne surveys easily now.”

Mapping the floating sea ice had been difficult for researchers, because most of it is underwater. The robot can dive down to 100 feet below the surface and examine the ice from underneath it.

While the Antarctic ice sheet on land is melting rapidly, the sea ice actually became thicker over the course of the study.

Since most of it melts in the summer, researchers had estimated the ice ranged in thickness from 3 to 16 feet.

But according to data collected by the drone, it ranged mostly between about four and a half to 18 feet thick.

The thickest ice was located in the Bellingshausen Sea and measured 65 feet deep.