The Silfra Crack, Where Divers Can Touch Two Continents at the same time

The Silfra fracture in Iceland is a break between the American and Eurasian structural plates. In some parts of this freshwater rift, a scuba diver can touch both continents simultaneously!

Scuba divers like Silfra since the water is so clear that you can see more than 100 lawns in advance of you. It’s likewise extremely chilly– concerning 36 to 39 levels Fahrenheit. When the sunlight’s rays illuminate undersea items such as rocks, rainbows develop as if refracted with a crystal. And also a mild current that streams from the source right into the lake pushes all foreign matter out, leaving waters in the break completely clear.

The water in Silfra is in fact thawed glacier water that wells up and also slowly filters through a very thick layer of solidified lava, the result of a volcanic eruption believed to have actually taken place regarding 12,000 years back.

The main fissure is about 330 yards long, and it prolongs out an additional hundred backyards or so into a lake called Thingvallavatn. The whole Silfra area– which includes connected cracks and also a shallows– amounts to regarding.4 square miles.

So what created this unique place? Iceland is just one of minority above-ground areas of the world’s lengthiest range of mountains. For the majority of its size, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge peaks concerning 2,700 yards listed below the surface of the Atlantic Sea, stretching more than 40,000 miles from the South Atlantic approximately the north of Greenland.

Continental drift, or the motion of tectonic plates at about an inch a year, is constantly pulling on the ridge. We usually do not see the underwater impacts, yet it’s why Iceland is abundant in volcanic task, hot springs, and quakes, which release the stress in between home plates. In fact, our word “hot spring” comes from the Icelandic word Geysir, the name of one of the country’s most renowned geysers. The Great Geysir has actually been mainly inactive given that 1916, however Silfra is simply one of several natural wonders that still attract people to Iceland

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