25 Fun Facts About Iceland That Most People Go Their Whole Life Without Knowing

Iceland's Silfra fissure is the only place in the world where you can swim between two tectonic plates. It is a crack between continents formed because of the tectonic plates pulling apart. Some of the openings are so narrow that you can touch both sides at once, i.e. you can be touching the North American and Eurasian continents at the same time. Not only that, but it’s also where you’ll find some of the clearest water in the world. The Silfra fissure is located in Thingvellir National Park, in southwestern Iceland, and it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Iceland was first settled in the ninth century and then the only native land mammal was the Arctic Fox. These animals came to the island at the end of the ice age, walking over the frozen sea. Other animals were brought to the island by settlers. There are from 8,000 to 10,000 Arctic Foxes living in Iceland and their status in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List is Least Concern.

The economic crash of 2008 was really devastating for Iceland and in order to lift up people’s spirits, the town of Akureyri thought that it’s the simple things that have the biggest impact. Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland and it is located in the north of the country, so the cold climate and long nights don’t help when it comes to keeping people happy. But the town found a solution: they transformed red traffic light circles into hearts. This was a part of a larger Smile With Your Heart campaign and the traffic lights became permanent fixtures of the city. Now people stuck in traffic see the hearts and are constantly reminded to stay positive and the international symbol of love in such an unexpected place puts a smile on one’s face.

Icelanders love to read books. Iceland publishes the most books per capita in the world, with five titles published per 1000 Icelanders. In 2009, the Reykjavik City Library’s book loans totaled to 1.2 million, but Reykjavik’s population is only 200,000. But the majority of books are sold during one particular time of the year—from late September to early November. This national tradition is called Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood." The books are gifted on the night of December 24th and people spend the night reading. The tradition started during World War II, when currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware in Iceland. But paper restrictions weren't that bad, so books became perfect Christmas presents.

Iceland's population is about 360,000 and on a such a small island with little immigration, there’s a chance that you have distant cousins that you don’t even know about. There is also a chance for an Icelander to accidentally date them. It’s such a problem that in 2010, they even developed an app which could help them to check if their newly gained acquaintance is related to them or not. The Íslendinga-App uses information from another data base Íslendingabók, or The Book of Icelanders, a website that lists all Icelanders since the first immigrants in the 11th century and their relations to one another. But the app makes it more convenient, provides easy access to smartphone users, and has some other fun functions. Android users just have to bump their phones and they already know how closely related they are.

Normally, in modern times, family members share their last name and it stays for generations through the father’s line, but in Iceland, they have their own last name system. Firstly, when two people get married, they keep their own last names. If they have a son, then his last name is formed by adding the suffix ‘-son’ to his father’s or mother’s first name, while a girl’s name would be formed by adding the suffix ‘-dóttir’. The suffixes literally mean ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ respectively. So that is how all of the family members can have different last names and there are no family names as we understand them now. Also, since 2019, Icelanders who identify as non-binary are allowed to add the suffix ‘-bur’ instead, which means ‘child.’

The Elephant Rock is a basalt rock found on the Westman Islands in Iceland. The Westman Islands formed after a series of volcanic eruptions and the last eruption that caused significant damage was in 1973. It is believed that the Elephant Rock formed in this very eruption.

It is spectacular because the shape is so defined, it looks like it has its trunk underwater and the basalt rock gives it a unique wrinkled skin texture.