Swimming Between Two Continents, Debunked
Silfra, in Þingvellir National Park in Iceland, is where the Eurasian and North American continental plates are dividing. It's a crack in the earth where you can snorkel or dive between the continents. Well, sort of. As ever, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Þingvellir geology:
www.thingvellir.is/en/history-nature/nature/geologic-history/
notendur.hi.is/oi/geology_of_thingvellir.htm
Þingvellir history: www.thingvellir.is/en/history-nature/history/
An interoduction to divergent plate boundaries: geology.com/nsta/divergent-plate-boundaries.shtml
Articles mentioned:
www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/dive-between-two-continental-plates-iceland-180957983/
www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140617-swim-between-two-tectonic-plates
www.businessinsider.com/scuba-diving-between-two-continents-2015-12?r=UK
Filmed safely: www.tomscott.com/safe/
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Julkaistu 7 kuukautta sitten
I think this is the first time I've failed to film a piece to camera on-location! I did try, but it turns out it's really difficult to wear a microphone and a dry suit at the same time.
WHY CANT THERE BE BOTH!
Can you make a video where you go to the furthest point in the world where you can see the longest (and go in to detail about the distance and why you can only see a limited amount of distance)
It came out two weeks ago but this was a month ago?
TOM! Please do a video on METADATA and EVIDENCE COLLECTION (EDRM) before the US Election (it matter all over the world but matters in this case VERY MUCH!!!! Your content is part of the top tier on youtube!!!! Please have a look and consider this idea! All yours!
Is it just me, or do you look exactly like the hedgehog from the new Ice age xD
I gave up a very stressful job as a deep sea diver. I couldn't take the pressure.
Geological strech marks 😀
The idea that the truth about reality is always more complex than can be explained in simple terms is something that I've carried with me for as long as I remember. Once you learn to accept that idea you can finally start learning critically instead of trivially. Interestingly the word trivial actually comes from describing a point where two roads meet. I find it particularly fitting since ascribing definition where there is none is exactly what this video is about only it isn't two roads meeting it is two tectonic plates. The meeting point of the two plates is trivial. The complicated understanding of how plates evade easy definition is much less so.
Great video as always, Tom. Have you tried those little anti fogging inserts for your GoPro? They only cost a few quid, work like magic, and if they get soggy from moisture, you just put them on the radiator for a while, and they're good to go again.
You’re standing on future ocean floor. So I’d say is not on either continent.
all this is really saying is that there is a lot of stuff one can do between the two continents instead of only one thing. sounds good to me.
You can find a similar situation in Istanbul. The Bosphorus divides the European and the Asian continent. You unfortunately can't walk across but you can swim, take one of the 3 bridges or a tunnel by car.
Content.
I've watched loads of Toms videos and I still can't figure out if he's 30 or 60.
this guy is da goat
I guess I thought that that's the way it worked anyway, so the video wasn't really informative to me.
There's so much to see in Iceland and im kinda disappointed that you couldn't see all the wonders. But i mean for you go over all of Icelands wonders you would have to buy a house here as a icelander my self i have never seen all of the wonders
Back when Virgin Festival was a thing here in Baltimore, the website suggested the breaststroke as the official stroke of Virgin Fest.
No one: The little gremlins under my bed: Oi oi Oi oi Oi oi Oi oi Oi oi
Tom Scott is the kid at the sleepover who says “it’s tomorrow” after midnight
Idk about the geology in that area, but if it's truly on a plate boundary, wouldn't the bridge at least got deformed? Whether its closing or moving away from each other.
1:44 oh look a tourist, you can tell by the way they walk
That person bouncing across that bridge at 1.46 gave me a good laugh.
At 1:50, Tom clearly facing south, sun on face shadow behind, points east at America, and west at Europe... just sayin. I've been there, its a very cool place to visit.
Island is the most beatiful and magical country. Cant change my mind.
Japan, where I live, is also half on the Eurasian plate (where Osaka is) and half on the North American plate (where Tokyo is).
So you arent swimming between two continents, your swimming between one continent. I'd argue that's even better
1:48 camera facing north?
*swimming in the Atlantic Ocean* I'm swimming between two continents
I know they wouldn't, but What if they moved
Technically swimming in the Atlantic Ocean is swimming between continents.
Not really, the continental plates extend into the middle of the Atlantic
So how long does it take to rip that bridge apart because of the two parts dividing?
A long long time ago there was a volcano...
1:47 he’s just the main character
Human is really everywhere...😎
Iceland is very green and Greenland is very icy.
i am the 1,000,041st view and i am sad because nobody cares and nobody would care if i were the millionth
So.. You debunked nothing.
I live in Iceland and always found this confusing thanks for explaining
You will never regret learning how to dive!
I've literally dived in Silfra, and had no idea that this was a thing lmao - I had the great experince and no dreams crushed with this video, so all good :P
Y'all got a lot of nerve getting made at Tom Scott in general
Actually it’s 4 dimensional, you forgot to include time 😉
So... it’s more like „clarified“ than „debunked“...
The Silfra dive is one of those "You should do this, but once you've done one or two dives in a day you can tick it off the bucket list and never do it again". The profile is VERY saw tooth (which is generally a bad thing for divers). The only good thing about that saw tooth profile is that it's generally quite shallow (in diving terms). If you're every going to dive silfra think of it as a drift dive and don't kick yourself forward, only to the sides or back. The current will carry you forward, kicking forward will only shorten your dive.
(earthquake happens)
You could have made the analogy to a large cookie being slowly pulled apart. It doesn't always split down one crack
This video made me thirsty for fresh glacial water
I am honestly surprised you are not a qualified driver
so you’re still in the area where the tectonic plates meet, it’s just not a 2d line through the ground that we think it is. tbh that sounds just as cool to me
"Or if you've propped up this bridge in a photo" People in the background pretending to be carrying the bridge for a photo "We're going to pretend we didn't hear that"
Still magical, but this was something I'd not realised.
It's a large world after all
Þingvellir is amazing. I hope to go to iceland again at some point!
So, actually I love to compare the split of the tectonic plates to the situation, when you bite off of a biscuit. And Iceland is full of crumbs.
Tom: its 3° so I had to wear a dry suit Wim hof: hold my clothing
Me who jumps into the Atlantic 😎
"A few people got angry" cos they were lied to by someone else. :/
My main question after watching this video is. Any plans to get back with n University Challenge?
If you go to the Middle East you could drive through three continents
This video actually made me thirsty. That water looks so good for some reason.
That's a good msg to spread. I'm not being sarcastic
Technically, if you are swimming anywhere in the ocean, you are swimming between two continents
There's a difference between the continents and the continental plates.
you are not. continents continue on the sea floor.
But as Silfra is indeed the crack between the two continental plates.... what else is there to say? How can it NOT be LITERALLY between two continents? I don't quite get it..
@NooaJ ah ok thx
they sort of mix together around that area. Silfra is a random crack in that area among many.
Nothing is really "debunked".. there are two tectonic plates and the bridge crosses the gap. The gap in between in filled with rubble or water. So not only technically correct.. but just: correct. A bit touristic form i agree, but still the real deal.
@NooaJ and every crack end is connected to one of the two tectonic plates. The cause of the cracks.
they sort of mix together around that area. Silfra is a random crack in that area among many.
How dare you!
you should come to Palm Springs and walk between the two shelfs...much warmer
I actually went to the bridge between continents! It was so cool to see the exact spot on video, aha - our whole school trip lined up, held hands, and stretched one side to the other! I still have the photo :D
I literally get goosebumps every time I watch a Tom Scott video. Learning about a subject or a place of interest can be incredibly thrilling. These videos make me awestruck.
I was interested right up until you said the temperature of the water 😳. Nope 🤣
This world is messier than most people think, that is so true
This is why i always word it like this: " if i drive from my hometown of Akureyri, east for about four hours to Eigilstaðir, i'm taking a road trip from north america to europe" its more acourite while still leaving people that don't know this amusingly confuded
Its all fun and games until someone finds a human shaped hole
You would be a wonderful 60 minutes host.
It might be a matter of scale
Poor lad. Man's bolding
This is giving me some serious thalassophobia
Living in this day and age water melting from the poles is carving out the land and water droplets rising out of the ground due to water tension
Now I really want to drink that water.
Just a tip, licking the camera lens will help with the fogging. I think the saliva repels the water, sounds a bit weird but it works
If youre swimming in silfra which continent would you be in?
Well just take a walk over the countless brigdes separating Europe and Asia, there's no continental plates, or not at all of them, but they are true continental gaps anyway.
I'm still confused, why aren't you between the two plates when swimming there?
1:45 It’s a me mario!
En echelon faulting just to make things more complicated. Geology rocks!
Europe always wanted to get further away from America
it's sort of like when you pull a doughnut apart, this is the crumbs in between.
Can you make a video where you go to the furthest point in the world where you can see the longest (and go in to detail about the distance and why you can only see a limited amount of distance)
I stood right under that bridge. Its weird when I went Iceland. I was like 13 and now I keep seeing all my favourite youtubers going to Iceland after me and visiting the same places I did. Not that surprising. Iceland attracts a lot of tourists. If just seems to be happening a lot. Pewdiepie went to that whale museum years ago, OSP Blue went to that giant waterfall, and now Tom's touring Iceland.
schools need to start hiring people like tom
I don't know if I "liked" this video. But I sure appreciate the effort it took to make.
I'm saying this because it kind of makes me sad to know that the world is so messy that no bit of knowledge or science can hold up to infinite scrutiny or skepticism.
Rub your camera lens with baby soap and water it will stop fog
The weirdest Captain Disillusion video I’ve ever seen
All those people walking about, feeling a magical moment between two tectonic plates, Tom casually crushing their dreams to FIblock.
i love how hes just chilling in my country
شكراً
hey
Your videos give me hope. What more can you ask for?
Were you still wearing the same red t-shirt and grey hoodie under the dry suit ???🤔
Yes for under hoodie, but for the wetsuit idk
👍
congrats on 3.14M subs!
Hey Tom, would you ever go on a Joe Rogan Podcast? I feel you'd have so many stories to tell!
"You need to be a qualified diver, to head down into the depths" /*Got an Advanced Open Water Diver license*/ Check. (Not joking at all)
3.14M!!!!!!