Australian Explorers Set New Record for Deepest Cave

The cave site of Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya's Kilifi County is
seen in this undated photograph.  Mohammad Javad Shoaee/Handout via
REUTERS
The cave site of Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya's Kilifi County is seen in this undated photograph. Mohammad Javad Shoaee/Handout via REUTERS
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Australian Explorers Set New Record for Deepest Cave

The cave site of Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya's Kilifi County is
seen in this undated photograph.  Mohammad Javad Shoaee/Handout via
REUTERS
The cave site of Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya's Kilifi County is seen in this undated photograph. Mohammad Javad Shoaee/Handout via REUTERS

A team of Australian cave explorers descended in a 400-meter-deep cave chain in Tasmania region, bringing a new record to their country, according to the German News Agency.

“The team successfully connected a newly discovered cave, named ‘Delta Variant,’ to the Niggly/Growling Swallet Cave system, taking the record for Australia’s deepest known cave to an anticipated 401 vertical meters. The team entered Delta Variant right before noon, on Saturday.

After first negotiating a difficult horizontal section, they descended down the ropes that had been fixed over the last six months.

When they reached the end of the last rope they tied, they descended another 35m, and reached the bottom of Delta Variant, breaking through into the Niggly System.

The team then exited via the Niggly System to achieve the first system traverse using this entrance,” Southern Tasmanian Caverneers said in a statement.

The team faced very challenging conditions with high water levels and spent over 14 hours underground.

“Making the connection between Delta Variant and Niggly is a momentous achievement for the caving community, but also adds to our scientific understanding of the extensiveness of Australia’s karst systems,” said team member Ciara Smart.



Research: Walking 7,000 Steps a Day a Huge Boost to Health

Step up: Walking even just a little more every day could have big health benefits. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
Step up: Walking even just a little more every day could have big health benefits. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
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Research: Walking 7,000 Steps a Day a Huge Boost to Health

Step up: Walking even just a little more every day could have big health benefits. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
Step up: Walking even just a little more every day could have big health benefits. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File

People who walk 7,000 steps a day have a dramatically lower risk of a broad range of serious health problems, the largest review of the evidence yet said Thursday.

The most widely promoted target for people tracking their number of steps is 10,000 -- but that figure reportedly originally came from a 1960s marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer, AFP said.

To find a more scientific target, an international team of researchers sifted through 57 previous studies that covered 160,000 people.

The results published in the Lancet Public Health journal found that walking 7,000 steps a day nearly halved people's risk of early death from all causes, compared to 2,000 steps.

The study also looked into health problems not previously covered by research into step counts.

Walking 7,000 steps a day was linked to people's risk of dementia falling by 38 percent, depression dropping 22 percent and diabetes decreasing 14 percent.

It was also associated with lower rates of cancer and falls, though the researchers warned this was based on less evidence.

"You don't need to hit 10,000 steps a day to get major health benefits," Paddy Dempsey, a study co-author and medical researcher at Cambridge University, told AFP.

"The biggest gains happen before 7,000 steps, and then benefits tend to level off," he said.

While people's speeds vary widely, 7,000 steps adds up to roughly an hour of walking throughout the day.

Dempsey emphasized that people already managing 10,000 or more steps should keep it up.

But he had a message for people who might find 7,000 steps daunting: "don't be discouraged".

"If you're only getting 2,000–3,000 steps a day, aim to add an extra 1,000 steps. That's just 10–15 minutes of light walking spread across the day," he said.

Andrew Scott, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth not involved in the study, said that "it demonstrates that overall more is always better".

"People should not focus too much on the numbers, particularly on days where activity is limited," he added.

The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity a week. Nearly a third of people worldwide do not reach this target, according to the WHO.