The Bering Strait separates mainland Russia and the US at their closest point – a distance of around 55 miles.
However, by zooming in closer, maps show that the two countries are actually separated by 2.4 miles, thanks to the location of a pair of islands, the Diomedes islands, located right in the middle of the Strait.
The islands, also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands, consist of two rocky, almost flat-topped islands.
Big Diomede is a Russian island, part of Chukotka, while Little Diomede belongs to the US, part of Alaska.
Because they are separated by the International Date Line, Big Diomede is almost a day ahead of its smaller counterpart. Because of this, the islands are sometimes called Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island.
If marginal seas are considered, then they are the northernmost islands within the entire Pacific Ocean.
Technically, due to locally defined time zones, Big Diomede is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede, reduced to 20 hours in the summer.
During the winter, an ice bridge usually spans the distance between the two islands, meaning it is theoretically possible to walk between the US and Russia. However, travel between the two islands is forbidden.
The islands are named after the Greek saint, Diomedes. Danish-born Russian navigator Vitus Bering, after which the Strait was named, sighted the islands on August 16 1728, the day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the saint.
The small habitation on Little Diomede Island is centred on the west side of the island, at the village bearing the same name. It has an Inupiat population of 77 as of 2023, with a school, post office and store.
After they established a military base there in 1948, the Soviet government relocated the indigenous population of Big Diomede Island to mainland Russia. The island is now inhabited only by military units.
The two islands are often mentioned as likely intermediate stops for the hypothetical bridge or tunnel – the Bering Strait crossing – spanning the Strait.
Big Diomede Island was traditionally the easternmost landmass before the International Date Line, and the first landmass to ring in a new year, if using local solar time. When using official time, however, a large area in eastern Russia and New Zealand also share the same time zone. New Zealand also has daylight saving time in effect during late December, while Russia does not.
This became moot in 1995, however, when the International Date Line was moved to the east of Kiribati, and that country’s easternmost time zone (GMT+14) is now the world’s earliest.
