Diving between Europe & North America

 

Thank you Fund for Teachers for giving me the opportunity to make it to the edge of the North American plate boundary in Iceland - ironically, I am sitting on the Eurasian plate in this photo.



Yesterday, I dove the plate boundary in Silfra along the Golden Coast in Þingvellir or Thingvellir which I now know is the same place (so hard to find a location on a map when in my mind it looks like it would be two different locations).   This is an area where the North American plate is moving west and the Eurasian plate is moving east causing a rift in Iceland.  More of Iceland sits on the Eurasian plate than the North American plate, so maybe that is why they classify Iceland as part of Europe.  (I'm sure it has nothing to do with plate boundaries...) 

Division between the plates

It was my first ever dry suit dive and I am so glad it was since it was so cold (0-4 degrees C = 32-39 degrees F!)  What kept the water from freezing up was the current from the waterfalls to the lake (largest land locked lake in Iceland) moved the water just enough to prevent icing up.   

During the two dives, I saw what I think was a glimpse of the tail of one fish.  They said there are tons of fish (some very large), but they typically only come out at night.  During this time of year that must mean never since it doesn't get dark here during the summer.  

We saw long stringy neon green algae and a globby brownish-reddish algae; there were lots of large rocks and sand forming various caverns and openings from the plates moving apart.  What made the dive amazing was the fact that it was the clearest blue water I've ever seen.   They claim it to be 100 m of visibility, but we maxed our dive out at 15 m.  They said they don't dive the lake itself (over 200 m deep) since it is not that clear because of too much sediment. 

 

Some of the algae on the rocks.

Thank you Dive Iceland for the trip and pictures.  They are planning to send us some of the ones they took during today's dive, but I figured that I should make the post before I get too far behind.  From here I head to Geyser...