(ORDO NEWS) — The Silfra Rift in Iceland is the only place on Earth where you can find yourself between two continents. Here you can touch North America and Europe at the same time.
Located in Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park, the Silfra fissure is a rift formed between the North American and Eurasian plates at a diverging tectonic boundary.
This is the only place in the world where you can sail directly between the North American and European continents.
The Silfra fissure was formed in 1789 by the movement of the North American and Eurasian plates that run through Iceland.
The two plates are moving about 2 centimeters a year, creating tension between them and the earth’s mass. This tension is removed by periodic strong earthquakes with an interval of about ten years.
As a result of this process, fissures form in the Ingvellir valley, with the Silfra fissure being one of the largest and deepest of them.
This huge crack is filled with some of the clearest water in the world – so clear you can drink it and you can look over 100 meters underwater.
The reason for this exceptional purity is a century-long filtration process – that’s how long it takes water to get to Silfra from the gorges emerging from the Langekull glacier about 60 kilometers to the north, passing underground through translucent lava fields in the region.
The water in this place is very cold – about 4 degrees Celsius.
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