The Silfra crack in Iceland is a rift between the American as well as Eurasian structural plates. In some parts of this freshwater rift, a scuba diver can touch both continents simultaneously!
Divers love Silfra because the water is so clear that you can see more than 100 yards in advance of you. It’s additionally extremely cold– regarding 36 to 39 levels Fahrenheit. When the sunlight’s rays brighten undersea items such as rocks, rainbows develop as if refracted with a crystal. And also a minor current that flows from the source right into the lake pushes all foreign matter out, leaving waters in the rift entirely clear.
The water in Silfra is actually thawed glacier water that wells up and also slowly filters through an extremely thick layer of strengthened lava, the result of a volcanic eruption believed to have occurred concerning 12,000 years earlier.
The major crack is about 330 backyards long, and also it prolongs out an additional hundred lawns approximately right into a lake called Thingvallavatn. The entire Silfra area– that includes linked cracks as well as a lagoon– amounts to regarding.4 square miles.
So what developed this distinct spot? Iceland is just one of the few above-ground areas of the world’s lengthiest range of mountains. For a lot of its size, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge tops out concerning 2,700 lawns below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, extending greater than 40,000 miles southern Atlantic approximately the north of Greenland.
Continental drift, or the activity of tectonic plates at regarding an inch a year, is constantly yanking on the ridge. We generally do not see the underwater impacts, yet it’s why Iceland is abundant in volcanic task, hot springs, and earthquakes, which launch the stress between the plates. Actually, our word “geyser” originates from the Icelandic word Geysir, the name of among the nation’s most famous geysers. The Great Geysir has actually been mostly dormant given that 1916, however Silfra is just one of several natural wonders that still draw people to Iceland
