#silfra

Silfra, Þingvellir. Crack between tectonic plates

via: Wikipedia

Wonderful ride with Silfra as a hand horse with the wonderful @llyfryddwr as a rider!! They were both having a really good time even though Mysla was very much feeling herself and the coming spring 💥🍃

Silfra is a crack in the Earth, ripped open by the movement of the Eurasian & North American tectonic plates. Located in Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park in southwest Iceland, it’s one of Iceland’s most visited and cherished natural wonders. The water temperature at Silfra ranges from 2°C to 4°C constant year-round. The crack at Silfra is slowly widening by about two centimeters every year.

There’s this place in Iceland where a person can swim down to the bottom of this lagoon, or pond, or lake and touch the earth. Swim isn’t the right word. Sorry. I mean maybe someone who could hold their breath for a really long time could do it. But whenever I try my throat and stomach scream in my ears (like the feeling of holding back tears). So, artificial air is more ideal for me. Wait. I’m not making sense. I tend to talk too much when I get nervous and my teeth threaten to cut my tongue in two (blood). Sorry. The “earth” I was referring to earlier. It’s really two parts of the planet’s crust. When followed for a thousand miles they connect to the more recognizable parts of North America and Europe. Maybe if the explorers of the 1400s knew about the world’s tectonic plates we wouldn’t have to change all the history books to read “Native Americans” instead of “Indians.” And because it’s Iceland, where the weather is perfect, the water is so clear. I assume you can see all the little differences between one tectonic rock and the next. Like one speaks with a British accent and the other wants to make Silfra great again. Was that too political? (Sorry.) But maybe there will be different fossils, because Pangea broke up like a fractured family. And now the two siblings have reconnected over their neglectful parents. That doesn’t make sense either. But underwater, the dry colors will refine to be all blue and bubbles: everything falling in slow motion (the image had while drowning). Further down the water will start to feel heavy. Isn’t that funny? (Since water drips from hands softly.) Water makes people light, but it’s denser. Wait. Scientifically that does make sense. I forget sometimes that the universe has rules. How gravity tugs on everything like a touch starved infant. And energy is never destroyed, it simply changes its form. (Sadness can shift from exterior to interior.) I bet a lot of people swim in the Silfra Crack every year. But only the expert divers are able to get to the lowest depths. (Where even light struggles to reach.) I tend to forget that the ocean has a bottom, but the earth doesn’t. I forget that my thoughts change as quickly as weather patterns and lifeguards don’t guard you from life, but from death. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if I travel to Iceland and dive down (with all that scuba gear on) into that underwater rift and touch those two continents at the same time, I would be uniting two parts of the world. I would become the tether between two points in history. I would be useful. And my mind wouldn’t disagree with my tongue and my fingers wouldn’t laugh at my toes and my hair wouldn’t lie to my heart. And it would finally be quiet. (I would be the only thing keeping the oceans from spilling into space.)

Silfra Diving by Magmadive Iceland Via Flickr: Heli diving with Magmadive!

After a long hiatus, I'm so excited to share what I was doing earlier today. #Silfra is the fault between the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates. They drift apart at the rate of 2cm per year, and the space in between is filled with fresh glacial water. This water is filtered by all the rocks in the area so is totally safe to drink, and the visibility is so great you can see the full 40m drop. It was cold as heck and also my first dry suit experience, but totally worth it!! (at Silfra)