Silfra · Iceland · Freshwater · Wall
Silfra Hall
The fissure opens into a hall floored with car-sized boulders
Silfra Hall is where the fissure first widens out, an open area about 50 metres long, 8 metres wide and 10 metres deep, a short swim in from the entry platform. Its floor is stacked with boulders half the size of cars, with gaps under them that can be swum at different depths. This is the section where Silfra reads as a canyon rather than a crack.
Also known as Salurinn.
Where it is and how deep
64.2537° N, 21.1185° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
From the submerged entry platform it is a short swim of 30 metres into the Hall, and the change in scale is the point of the section. The walls step back and the fissure opens into an area 10 metres deep, 50 metres long and about 8 metres wide, the first place on the dive where you take in the whole cross-section of the rift at once instead of a corridor running away in front of you.
The bottom here is littered with boulders half the size of cars, slabs that came off the walls and jammed where they fell. Swim-throughs underneath the rocks and boulders can be done at different depths, and the gaps between them repay a slow pass with a light. Silfra Hall also leads into a cave system reaching a maximum depth of 45 metres, well outside the shallow profile of the tour dive.
Life is thin in water this cold, but not absent. The fissure is habitat for an amphipod, Crymostygius thingvallensis, found only in Þingvallavatn and the surrounding fissures. The only fish living here year-round is the dwarf char, a subspecies of the Arctic char, and it is rarely seen because it keeps to the deeper and darker recesses. Arctic char themselves occasionally venture into Silfra during the mating season in August and September.
From Silfra Hall it is a 200 metre swim on to Silfra Cathedral. The profile is an up and down rather than a level cruise: at several points rocks have jammed in the crack at shallow depth and you cross over them before dropping back into the deeper channel beyond.
Marine life and season
- Freshwater fish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Silfra: Water temperature and clarity stay constant year-round since Silfra is fed by filtered glacial groundwater; ratings track daylight hours and road access to Þingvellir, not underwater conditions.
Know before you go
- A cave system leads off the Hall and reaches 45 m, far past the 18 m maximum allowed depth in Silfra; the dive stays in the open room rather than following it down.
- The boulder floor and the swim-throughs between the slabs are easy to silt out with a careless fin kick, which costs the divers behind you the visibility they came for.
Photos from Silfra Hall
Jens Bludau · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dive videos
Iceland Snorkeling in Silfra Fissure (Hall) 4K Swimming Between Continents Adventure · Travel & Explore on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Silfra Hall?+
The open part of the Hall is about 10 m deep, 50 m long and roughly 8 m wide. A cave system leads off it to a maximum depth of 45 m, which is not part of the recreational route.
Is there any marine life in Silfra?+
Very little. The fissure holds an amphipod, Crymostygius thingvallensis, found only in Þingvallavatn and the fissures around it, and the dwarf char, a subspecies of Arctic char that lives in the deeper, darker recesses year-round. Arctic char occasionally enter during the August and September mating season.
Sources
- The different sections of Silfra — silfra.org
- Silfra's location — silfra.org
- Dive Site Silfra in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland — DIVE.IS
- Silfra — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- Clear turquoise water sits in a narrow gap between frost-white and moss-covered rock. by Guillaume Baviere from Uppsala, Sweden, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Snorkelers swim single file along the narrow, moss-walled Silfra fissure. by Jens Bludau, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Why things look bigger underwaterOcean science · 12 min read
- Cold-water diving: is it worth the drysuit?Cold water · 8 min read
- Freshwater diving: lakes, springs and quarriesFreshwater · 15 min read
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