Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Iceland doesn't have a
Speaker 1: whole lot in common with the United States, but it
Speaker 1: does share a few similarities. Like the US, It's home
Speaker 1: to some of the most impressive and beautiful phenomena nature
Speaker 1: has to offer. Stare into the sky during a solar
Speaker 1: flare and you might catch the swirling greens and blues
Speaker 1: of the Aurora borealis. Jump on a boat and watch
Speaker 1: out for splashes from the tales of gentle humpbacks breaching
Speaker 1: the water, or take a dip in the one degree
Speaker 1: Blue Lagoon, a geo thermal spa forty minutes outside the capital.
Speaker 1: Explore is looking for more of a thrill, however, can
Speaker 1: venture into Thing their national Park. It boasts the longest
Speaker 1: mountain range on Earth, set atop of constantly shifting landscape.
Speaker 1: In fact, the land actually moves two centimeters every year,
Speaker 1: which results in falling rocks and landslides that can prove
Speaker 1: dangerous for careless divers. Yes, I said divers as It
Speaker 1: turns out the mountain range known as the mid Atlantic
Speaker 1: Ridge rests under the clear blue waters of the Silfra Crack.
Speaker 1: Silfra is actually a fissure caused by the separation of
Speaker 1: the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in nine. The
Speaker 1: resulting split caused melt water from a nearby glacier to
Speaker 1: be filtered through porous underground lava for decades before filling
Speaker 1: Sulfra's underground spring. That means the water is not just
Speaker 1: safe to drink, it's also so clear you feel like
Speaker 1: you're floating in air, though you won't find much in
Speaker 1: terms of aquatic life there. While the Silfra Crack does
Speaker 1: boast the cleanest water around, it's far too cold for
Speaker 1: any aquatic wildlife to survive. Instead, the fish tend to
Speaker 1: stick to a nearby lake where the temperatures are more
Speaker 1: comfortable to live in. But there are two important attractions
Speaker 1: that bring divers down into Sulfra. The first is the Cathedral,
Speaker 1: which is a three thirty foot long underwater fissure in
Speaker 1: the earth. It's not the length of the crack that's
Speaker 1: so impressive, though, it's that the water is clear enough
Speaker 1: to see from one end of the cathedral to the other,
Speaker 1: as if the water wasn't even there. The other attraction
Speaker 1: is one meant for more experienced divers. While tourists and
Speaker 1: casual divers take it easy near the surface, those who
Speaker 1: are brave enough can swim down into the crack, which
Speaker 1: descends roughly sixty meters. Like I said before, the land
Speaker 1: is always moving, almost like it's alive, and as the
Speaker 1: plates shift, new tunnels and caves open up, providing divers
Speaker 1: with new avenues of exploration. It's also much more dangerous
Speaker 1: because of that Tunnels can close up at any moment,
Speaker 1: Rocks can come loose and crush someone if they're not
Speaker 1: paying attention. But if they make it down that far,
Speaker 1: divers can see how the North American and Eurasian plates
Speaker 1: have pulled apart over time. Oh and did you notice
Speaker 1: anything special about those names? The North American Plate and
Speaker 1: the Eurasian Plate. If you guess that they were part
Speaker 1: of the North American and European continental landmasses, you would
Speaker 1: be correct. What we see on a map is like
Speaker 1: the tip of an iceberg. There's so much beneath the
Speaker 1: water we never see, and if we did, it would
Speaker 1: give us a greater understanding of just how large our
Speaker 1: continents really are. Put another way, the crack is a
Speaker 1: lot like the Four Corners in the American Southwest, where
Speaker 1: a person can technically stand in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah,
Speaker 1: and Colorado all at the same time, which is impressive,
Speaker 1: I know, but not nearly as oppressive as what you
Speaker 1: can do down in the Silfra Crack. Because they're brave,
Speaker 1: divers can stand between two separate tectonic plates, stretch out
Speaker 1: their arms and touch both sides. And since anyone who
Speaker 1: does that is touching the very edge of both continents,
Speaker 1: they are technically in North America and Europe at the
Speaker 1: exact same moment. It's entirely possible, I assure you, but
Speaker 1: at the same time, it is a bit of a stretch.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how the threat of imminent danger can add
Speaker 1: such clarity to our daily lives. When faced with the
Speaker 1: serious threat, we're able to see what's truly important and
Speaker 1: what can be disregarded to ensure our safety. Oftentimes, war
Speaker 1: is the catalyst for such realizations, and for the people
Speaker 1: who participated in World War One, that danger didn't just
Speaker 1: add clarity, it also added a little engine uity. It
Speaker 1: was called the Great War for a reason. The conflict
Speaker 1: lasted for four years and stretched across almost all of Europe,
Speaker 1: but its effects were especially felt in Great Britain. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just that almost nine million British soldiers fought in
Speaker 1: the trenches. If you were an average citizen in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom in nineteen fifteen, then you likely witnessed firsthand
Speaker 1: the terrifying creation of Count von Zeppelin. This new weapon
Speaker 1: of mass destruction, as you can probably guess, was an
Speaker 1: enormous hydrogen filled aircraft, appropriately called the Zeppelin. It floated
Speaker 1: above the streets of England late at night, its engines
Speaker 1: thrumming in the ears of sleepy and frightened families below.
Speaker 1: While the Zeppelin did drop bombs and caused quite a
Speaker 1: bit of damage, that wasn't their intention. Their primary mission
Speaker 1: was to instill fear in the British in order to
Speaker 1: break the morale and pull them out of the war,
Speaker 1: and it almost worked. People jumped out of their beds
Speaker 1: with their clothes on their backs and dashed into smoke
Speaker 1: filled streets littered with rubble buildings. Collapsed homes were destroyed.
Speaker 1: Survivors of the Zeppelin raids recalled not knowing where the
Speaker 1: danger ever really was, and whether they were running toward
Speaker 1: it or away from it. Functioning on little sleep and
Speaker 1: a sudden jolt of adrenaline, British citizens often found themselves
Speaker 1: shivering in the street, wondering if and when the big
Speaker 1: one would hit them next, or whether they'd have a
Speaker 1: home to return to when it was all over. And
Speaker 1: as the raids grew more and more frequent and people
Speaker 1: began to expect them, fear quickly turned to embarrassment. After all,
Speaker 1: folks were standing in public in their nightgowns and underwear,
Speaker 1: something only their significant others were supposed to see. Women
Speaker 1: began preparing the night before by hanging cloaks and scarves
Speaker 1: by their door. Bald men had emergency to pays at
Speaker 1: the ready. This was Britain in the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and social status was everything. What would the neighbors think
Speaker 1: if one was caught looking less than their best, even
Speaker 1: when the war was doing its worst. But there were
Speaker 1: other problems with their choices of nighttime fashion. First, and
Speaker 1: most importantly, they weren't that fashionable. A cloak was just
Speaker 1: a big wearable blankets, and nobody wanted to look frumpy
Speaker 1: in front of their friends. Second, running from explosions proved
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult when one's legs were being restricted by long,
Speaker 1: bulky coats, so they turned to the French, who had
Speaker 1: been known to lounge around in comfortable, luxurious clothing when
Speaker 1: they were waiting for the bombs to strike. It was
Speaker 1: a solution that was breathable and stylish, So stylish, in fact,
Speaker 1: that a British fashion editor at the time stated she
Speaker 1: actually looked forward to the evening raids just so she
Speaker 1: could show off her new black threads. Funny enough, this
Speaker 1: new fashion trend quickly issued function for form. Rather than
Speaker 1: keeping the colors dark so that targets were harder to spot.
Speaker 1: During the night, colors lightened up from blacks and dark
Speaker 1: blue is two pinks and reds. Sure, friends and their
Speaker 1: neighbors could get a good look at them, but the
Speaker 1: British didn't mind, and eventually the raids subsided as German
Speaker 1: resources were needed elsewhere during the war. But they're hot.
Speaker 1: New nighttime clothing only grew in popularity and we still
Speaker 1: wear them today, though thankfully not for bombing raids. We
Speaker 1: just wear them to relax in bed or in front
Speaker 1: of the television while we binge our favorite shows. So
Speaker 1: I guess we can thank the French and the British
Speaker 1: for a lot of the things we still love today.
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes, a good glass of wine, and of course, pajamas.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another ward winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.