Silfra: snorkelling between the plates
One of about 100 fissures in the Þingvellir rift valley – and one of two where diving is allowed.
Silfra is a fissure at the northern end of Þingvallavatn in Þingvellir National Park. It lies in the strip about five kilometres (3 mi) wide between the North American plate and the Hreppar microplate, is up to 10 m (33 ft) wide and up to 60 m (197 ft) deep. Its water comes from Langjökull and takes about 30 years to pass through the lava; that is why visibility reaches about 100 metres (328 ft).
Diving and snorkelling are allowed in the park only in Silfra and Davíðsgjá. Every dive must be registered with the park and paid for at ISK 1,500 – online, at the Leirar service centre or at the Hakið visitor centre. The park does not hire out equipment; most visitors come with a tour operator who includes the fee in the price.
Nobody may enter Silfra alone, go deeper than 18 m (59 ft) or into caves. Divers need a diving licence and a dry suit certificate or ten dry suit dives in two years; snorkellers enter the 2 to 4 °C (36–39 °F) water in a dry suit or a thick wetsuit with hood, gloves and booties.
Þingvellir National Park: Silfra – geology and history ↗
In numbers
- Width
- up to 10 m (33 ft)
- Depth of the fissure
- up to 60 m (197 ft)
- Permitted diving depth
- 18 m (59 ft)
- Visibility
- about 100 m (328 ft)
- Water temperature
- 2–4 °C (36–39 °F)
- Water's journey from Langjökull
- about 30 years
- Fee per dive
- ISK 1,500
- Age of the fissure
- over 1,500 years
- Fissures in the strip
- about 100
- Width of the strip
- about 5 km (3 mi)
