1.Ice Diving – McMurdo Sound (Antarctica)

Antarctica scuba diving? Yes, in extreme temperatures that often drop below -40°C (-40°F), where no insects, plants nor major life exists here above the ground, people do the unthinkable and plunge into it’s icy waters! McMurdo Sound Antarctica is where divers break through the 1.3-3m (4-10ft) thick ice to enter the freezing cold waters, only to be rewarded by stunning visibility of about 300m (990 ft) and a rich marine life like no other anywhere else in the world.

The water below the thick layers of ice remains a near constant temperature of -1.8° C (28.8° F) and once under, divers can experience an unbelievable visibility of 300m (990 ft)! Once a divers eyes adjust to the one percent of sunlight that makes it through the ice, they describe the experience as flying over a darkened landscape of hills, valleys and sheer cliffs and if one were to look up a spectacular glowing blue cover with a moon like crater that is the ice and hole, is their reward. McMurdo Sound divers encounter colorful examples of sea life, including bright yellow cactus sponges, green globe sponges, starfish, sea urchin, jellyfish, sea anemone and some brilliant soft coral. One can even spot a Emperor Penguins gracefully swimming to find a meal of squid, fish or crustaceans. Needless to say diving at McMurdo Sound requires a high level of skills and proficiency in drysuit diving.

2. Lost City – Yonaguni Monument (Japan)

Yonaguni is a tiny Japanese island (28 sq. km.) with a population of less than 2000, located in the middle of the open seas, 125 km from Taiwan and 127 km from Ishigaki the nearest Japanese Island. Despite its tiny size and being located in one of the remotest parts of Japan, the waters off Yonaguni contain some of the most stunning dive sites in the world including an underwater ancient lost city known as the Yonaguni Monument.

The underwater ancient ruins lie at varying depths of 5-40 meters just off the southeastern edge of the island, forming one of the earth’s greatest mysteries. The Yonaguni Monument’s underwater rock formations are made up of a series of extraordinary formations including huge platforms, seemingly carved steps and huge stone pillars that were likely to be an ancient temple predating all buildings known to man. Most diving that takes place here are drift dives and most of the sites only for the very experienced divers as currents can be overwhelming, with no anchor lines for ascents and safety stops where buoyancy control plays an important aspect of your dive. The bottom is over 350 feet deep with steep cliff drop offs and with it’s unpredictable conditions it’s not a site for inexperienced divers. In addition to the ruins, Yonaguni is also famous among divers for its abundance of hammerhead sharks (often in groups of 100 or more) which congregate around the island and can be spotted on most dives in areas of strong current mostly during the winter months.

3. A Crater- Homestead Crater (Midway, Utah)

The Homestead Crater, located at Homestead Resort at Midway (Wasatch County) is a 55 foot dome formed out of beehive-shaped limestone rock which is filled with crystal clear thermal spring fed water. The large rock dome has a hole at the top which lets in the natural sunlight and air. The entrance to the crater is through a man-made tunnel through the side.

Diving in the crater is a unique experience. While there is no aquatic life to speak of, as the water temperature is 96 degrees, there is still much to explore and the soothing warm water itself is worth diving. The spring is around 60 feet wide, with a depth 65 feet. Visibility is around 40-50 feet and the hourglass shaped cavern has interesting walls formed by mineral deposits. The bottom of the cavern at 65 feet is silty and divers can spot bottles and dropped coins and other baubles, however divers are asked to limit their depth to 45 feet to avoid stirring up the silt. Underwater lights have been mounted at 20 and 40 feet inside the spring, however it still gets rather dark, so it would be advisable to carry a dive light.

4. Subway Car – Atlantic City Reef (Atlantic City)

Of all the strange wrecks one can dive around the country, the sunken subway cars around the waters of Atlantic City are by far an unusual spectacle. The artificial reef program in the waters of the mid-Atlantic was an attempt to provide a way to bring fish and other marine creatures back to the featureless flat bottomed ocean bed. The Atlantic City Reef is one of the oldest artificial reefs in existence today.

In August 2001, New York City subway cars were slid off a barge into the Atlantic Ocean ten miles east of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. This artificial reef was a success and resulted in a subsequent attempt at the Atlantic City Reef in April 2008 where 44 decommissioned stainless steel “Brightliner’ subway cars were placed in a circular pattern in the reef to provide scuba divers access. The site of the sunken Brightliner subway cars can be reached by charters run by several local dive centers. Depths vary from 80feet up to 130ft, and visibility is often poor. Currently, the subway cars are still undergoing their transformational process, inhabited only by black sea bass, tautog, and lobsters, but over time, coral anemones, barnacles and mussels will attach to the surface and attract hundreds of fishes.

5. Dive Between Continents – Silfra (Iceland)

Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle, suggesting the freezing cold waters alone wouldn’t scream scuba diving! But the uniqueness of its dive sites definitely do. Known as the land of glaciers, active volcanoes, geysers and hot springs, Iceland actually sits on the joint where two continental plates meet. This crack in the face of the earth between the Eurasian and American tectonic plates is Silfra, rated a World Top 10 Dive Site by some of the most respected dive magazines worldwide.

Silfra is as unique as you’ll get for a dive site. The Silfra Ravine is a crack in the earth signifying two massive landmasses and is filled with the clearest water you could possibly see. With visibility said to be 100m+ it feels like you’re floating on air! Silfra offers open water diving, caving and deep diving, with a depth of about 40 meters (131 feet) open water and 60 meters (197 feet) inside a cave. Even deep dives feel unreal in these pristine waters. Silfra never freezes over because of the current which pushes you along the ravine as you dive this site. However if you dive at Silfra don’t expect to see fancy fish or marine life, the most you may see are tiny fish darting into the rocks.

6. Boeing 727 Aircraft Wreck – Spirit of Miami, Key Biscayne Artificial Reef (Miami, Florida)

Located off the coast of Miami, Florida is a Boeing 727 jet that was sunk as part of the Key Biscayne Artificial Reef Site in 1993. The jet was meticulously cleaned, disassemble for transportation over land and reassembled for placement on a barge by its owner, Steve O’Neal. It was then lowered to the bottom of the ocean floor and anchored at depth of 82 ft. Unfortunately, the plane was hit during Hurricane Gordon in the summer of 1995 and now lies in two sections with the main body of the jet in 82 feet of water and the tail section in 110 feet of water.

Called the Spirit of Miami, the pieces of the wreck are now covered with soft corals and dotted with spiny oysters that snap their shells closed when divers approach, making this dive site a favorite of Miami area divers. Another interesting story surrounding this wreck is that it’s rumored to have a time capsule hidden somewhere in the wreckage, due to be opened in 2043 or when a diver finds it – whichever happens first!

7. An Underwater Museum – Cancun’s National Park (Cancun, Mexico)

Cancun’s Marine National Park has faced the increased pressure of the 750,000 tourist that flock to its coasts each year combined with the devastating effects of climate change, causing its dying and declining coral reefs. In an effort to lure away some of the tourist from the reef, the Mexican government commissioned the creation of the world’s largest underwater museum at a cost of 350,000 US dollars. It features sculptures created by renowned British underwater sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor. In April 2010 it had over 250 sculptures ready and installed with the target of 400 to be standing by 2011.

The Marine Park Museum is a stunning place to dive and a unique experience to move around from sculpture to sculpture. Both scuba divers and snorkelers can visit the museum and experience the eerie human almost lifelike forms submerged in the blue. With age, these sculptures will constantly change in appearance drawing people back to them just to see how they’ve progressed with time.

8. An Underwater Volcano – Mahengetang (Indonesia)

If diving one of the best coral reefs in the world in Indonesia isn’t exciting enough for you, here’s a dive site that takes things to a new level. Mahengetang, located between Siau and Sangihe Islands, is one of the only active underwater volcano’s you can dive!

Mahengetang Underwater Volcano Top 10 Cool And Unusual Dive Sites

This underwater volcano called the Banua Wuhu (also known as the Mahengetang volcano) rises more than 400 m from the sea floor to form a shoal less than 5 m below sea level and is located just off the island of Mahengetang. Mahengetang’s two cones reach to within a few feet of the surface, 4-5 meters in low tide and 8-10 meters in high tide in a couple of places, and one pinnacle actually breaks through the surface and then drops off on all sides to beyond recreational diving depths. Although you would not expect it, the submarine volcano exhibits an exorbitant flourishing pristine marine habitat. Some marine biologists who have formerly surveyed and explored the site are convinced that there are more fish and coral species here within one square kilometer of sea than in the entire Caribbean Sea. There’s no distinct crater, however there are huge sulfur covered rocks, resembling a crater type formation with small intermittent outbursts of volcanic gasses that can be seen everywhere making their ascent to the surface as bubbles. With the average water temperature ranging between 37-38 degrees Celsius around the bubbling holes where the hot water comes out, it’s crucial to wear the right kind of exposure suit and feels much like swimming in a huge glass of champagne, not chilled.

9. A Nuclear Missile Silo – Dive Valhalla (Midland, Texas)

Dive Valhalla as the missile silo is known, gets its name from Norse mythology and is the largest indoor deep-diving training facility in the world. Decommissioned after just two years of completion in the early 1960′s during the Cold War, the silo formerly housed a 82-foot- (25-m-) long nuclear-tipped Atlas missile. When abandoned, it was left to fill up with groundwater . The 1,288 ton (1,159 m tons) concrete and steel cylindrical “pool” is 60-foot (18 m) wide and drops to a depth of 127 feet (38 m) with nearly 2 million gallons (7.6 million liters) of clear dive-able water in it.

While there’s not much to see when you dive in this missile silo except some debris that crisscrosses the shaft at around 110ft, diving here is more for the thrill factor and the fact that it’s a bit of an oddity more than anything else. Besides, how many people can say they got to go diving in a nuclear missile silo?

10. An Underwater Cemetery- The Neptune Memorial Reef (Miami, Florida)

The term ‘Burials at Sea’ have taken on a brand new meaning in Miami, Florida. The Neptune Memorial Reef is not your average cemetery, but the first of it’s kind underwater cemetery. Situated about 45 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, the cemetery – complete with gates, pathways, plaques and even benches – is not only a great final resting spot for those who loved the sea but also the world’s largest man-made reef (covering over 600,000 sq feet), an unique and unusual site for scuba diving.

Cool And Unusual Dive Sites Neptune Memorial Reef Top 10 Cool And Unusual Dive Sites

Located 3-1/2 miles east of Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida (GPS coordinates N25º 42.036′, W80º 05.409′), the memorial site is free for any certified scuba divers to visit. What some may find strange and bizarre, scuba divers actually see in another light and are flocking to the unusual dive site. The reef sits in 50 feet of water. With the interesting structures that are slowly growing coral life to soon become a thriving artificial reef, there’s no shortage of things to keep the interest of divers. In less than a year, large numbers of schooling fish such as grunts and snappers have begun to congregate around the site. Spotted eagle rays cruise through regularly while smaller tropical fish like damsels, tangs, triggers and puffers seek refuge and forage around the statues. Sponges and a few soft coral species have already begun their colonization so hard corals certainly won’t be far behind. While most of the structures adorning the site are 90 percent cement, some are in bronze and steel. What’s more are the interesting plaques that bear sweet sayings such as ‘we committed grandma to the dolphins and the angels.’