Silfra Fissure — Silfra Fissure

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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Silfra Fissure location page.

Overview

Crack between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates filled with crystal-clear glacial meltwater. Visibility regularly exceeds 80 m. You drift between two continents — at points the gap is narrow enough to touch both walls.

Briefing note

Drysuit certification mandatory. The water is potable — open your reg and drink straight from the source.

What you'll see

3 species curated

Arctic char
rare
Three-spined stickleback
year-round
Marimo algae
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Arctic char
low confidence
Last confirmed
May 2026
Recent records
8 within 10 km

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Feb	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Mar	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Apr	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
May	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Jun	3–5 °C	70–100 m	mild
Jul	3–5 °C	70–100 m	mild
Aug	3–5 °C	70–100 m	mild
Sep	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Oct	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Nov	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild
Dec	2–4 °C	70–100 m	mild

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

Drysuit — 2-4C glacial water — wetsuit is unsafe. PADI Dry Suit cert required by operators.
Hood — Exposed face and head freeze in seconds without insulation.
Computer — Cold-water dive computer to monitor exposure.

Next step

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