Strýtan

Strýtan is the only hydrothermal chimney that is accessible for scuba diving, yet discovered.  The other known chimneys like this are at 2000 – 6000 m depth. Strýtan stands tall and alone in the middle of Eyjafjörður, it rises from 65 m to  15 m. It was formed over 10.000 years ago or after the last ice age and you can see in some areas where it’s still building. There are around 100 L of 72°C freshwater coming from the chimney every second. Scientists say that the water is around 11.000 years old.

Strýtan is the first underwater protected area in Iceland and Strýtan Divecenter is its offical protector.

Strýtan was discovered hundred of years ago by old fishermen measuring the depth of the fjord with weights and a line but when modern technology of the coast guard didn’t find them they took them off the sea-charts and declared them non-existent in 1987. In 1997 Erlendur Bogason and his friend Árni Halldórsson, captain of the whale watching boat Níels Jónsson, found this giant structure together.

In 2015 we had physicist Brian Cox coming over and he, along with his team from BBC, Erlendur Bogason and Árni Halldórsson, made a remake of how they found the chimneys almost 20 years ago for their TV series Forces of Nature. The episode is called the Moth and the Flame. Brian claims that all life on earth might have started with hydrothermal chimneys on a shallow depth, just like Strýtan, million of years ago. So technically you could say that after this dive you have dived “in the beginning of life on earth”. 

For our most popular tour and more information check out The Strýtan Day Tour.