In this exciting Blue World adventure, Jonathan travels up to Iceland in search of a dive site called Silfra which supposedly has the clearest water in the world! But it's cold!
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Temperate water is rarely very clear. We consider ourselves lucky to get 30 feet of visibility in New England. Sometimes it’s not even that good-more like 10 feet. You can barely see anything until you are right on top of it. Plankton makes this water extremely fertile, but you can’t see through it very well.
In the tropics, water has less plankton and it’s often quite a bit clearer. It’s not unusual to have 100 feet, sometimes even 150 feet of visibility in the tropics.
At the massive Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston-a huge indoor swimming pool where astronauts are trained-I have experienced visibility of at least 400 feet. The water is so clear, it’s like it’s not there at all. But this is a pool. The water is filtered and chlorinated. Is there anyplace in the world with naturally-occurring clarity like this?
Iceland is right smack-dab in the middle of the mid-Atlantic ridge, where two large tectonic plates meet. Lava coming out from between these plates at a hot spot created Iceland about 20 million years ago. But since those tectonic plates are still moving, Iceland has cracks down the middle and occasional earthquakes as a result.
Silfra is one of those cracks. It has filled with spring water that percolates up through the ground from distant glaciers. So it’s cold and it’s clear.
Iceland itself is a beautiful and sparsely populated country full of natural wonders.
It has huge glaciers. And those glaciers give birth to icebergs which float away into the North Atlantic ocean.
But even though it’s called Iceland, it’s not all ice by any means. At least in the summer.
There aren’t many trees, but the landscape features rolling green grassy hills. There are grazing sheep. And lots of farms.
Summer meltwater feeds scores of rivers and streams. Some are crystal clear, others are filled with minerals making them milky white.
And there are waterfalls. I mean a lot of awesome waterfalls! This is Gulfoss, one of Iceland’s largest.
Until recently, the only divers who came here were animals.
But Silfra has changed all that. Divers now come from around the world to experience the amazing visibility in this tiny dive site just a few meters wide and a few hundred meters long.
They say this is the clearest water in the world. Let’s go find out!
My adventure begins in downtown Reykjavic, Iceland’s capital city.
Diving here is not without difficulty. I’ll need a dry suit to stay warm in the water which is barely above freezing. Since most people don’t go to Iceland specifically to dive, they often don’t bring any gear. Dive Iceland supplies everything you need, even the dry suit. Our team has decided to try their gear, for the full experience. So we’re all getting into drysuits we’ve never worn before.
After we have our suits on, I have to carry my camera all the way from the parking area to the entry point.
Jose hands me my camera and I sink down into clear, cold water.
Under the surface, there is nothing to see but bare rock-and crystal clear water. My first view under the surface blows my mind-I can see all the way down to the end of the crack where it takes a turn! I have no idea how far that is.
Once everyone is ready, we submerge. Then Jose leads the way downstream. There’s a gentle current in Silfra from the spring opening all the way down to a lake.
The incredible visibility is no exaggeration! This is the clearest water I have ever seen in sunlight. The straight sections of Silfra aren’t even long enough to test the full visibility, but it’s easily many hundreds of feet.
We swim for a few minutes through a narrow crack, which is at least 50 feet deep. There’s nothing to see down there, so we stay pretty shallow where the marginal morning light is a little better.
In this shallow water, strands of green algae thrive on the ample summer sunlight.
After passing through the shallow section, we head into another deep crack. Now that the initial excitement has worn off, I’m noticing the water temperature, which is only 36° Fahrenheit, barely above freezing.
My face is completely numb. This water is nearly as cold as the water in Antarctica! It might look tropical because of that blue color seen in very clear water, but I’m definitely not in the Bahamas.
31 дек 2015
