Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” ( ik, Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island,The American Local History Network
russian: Остров Крузенштерна, ''Ostrov Kruzenshterna'') is an island of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, United States. It is the smaller of the two

Diomede Islands The Diomede Islands (; russian: острова́ Диоми́да, translit=ostrová Diomída), also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands (russian: острова́ Гво́здева, translit=ostrová Gvozdjeva), consist of two rocky, mesa-like is ...

located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaska mainland and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. Little Diomede's neighboring island,

Big Diomede , image_name = Bigdiomecropped.jpg , image_caption = Big Diomede seen from its nearest neighbor, Little Diomede , map_caption = , locator_map_size = , nickname = , location = Bering Strait , coordinates = , archipelago =Diomede Isla ...

, is about to the west, but Big Diomede is part of Russia and west of the

International Date Line The International Date Line (IDL) is an internationally accepted demarcation on the surface of Earth, running between the South and North Poles and serving as the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific O ...

. Unlike its larger Russian neighbor, Little Diomede retains a permanent native population. As of 2022, Little Diomede had a population of 77, down from its recorded peak of 178 in 1990. The entirety of the island is in the City of Diomede (named as well). The island is not part of any organized borough, so some services are provided directly by the state. For census purposes, it is included in the

Nome Census Area Nome Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska, mostly overlapping with the Seward Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,046, up from 9,492 in 2010. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore h ...

. During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the " Ice Curtain". In August 1987, however,

Lynne Cox Lynne Cox (born 2 January 1957) is an American long-distance open-water swimmer, writer and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has been ...

swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approx. ) and was congratulated jointly by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Commu ...

and Ronald Reagan.

Etymology

The Diomede Islands are named after

Saint Diomedes Saint Diomedes of Tarsus (Diomede) ( Greek: Διομήδης ό Ταρσεύς, d. between 298 and 311 AD) is venerated as a Greek Christian saint and martyr, one of the Holy Unmercenaries. Life Diomedes was born in Tarsus. He was a physician ...

. Danish-Russian navigator

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

(after whom the Bering Strait is named) sighted the Diomede Islands on August 16 ( O.S., August 27 N.S.), 1728, the day on which the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

celebrates the memory of the saint. Its Inupiaq name means "the other one" or "the one over there".

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the island has a total area of , all of it land. On the western shore of the island is the village of

Diomede Diomede (; Ancient Greek: Διομήδη ''Diomēdē'') is the name of four women in Greek mythology: * Diomede, daughter of Xuthus. She married Deioneus, king of Phocis, and was the mother of Cephalus, Actor, Aenetus, Phylacus and Asterodia.(I ...

, also known as ''Iŋaliq''. Little Diomede Island is located about west from the mainland, in the middle of the Bering Strait. It is only from the

and about from the Russian island of

. The highest point on Little Diomede Island is (about halfway along the west coast, about southeast of the village, facing the southern tip of Big Diomede). There is a heliport, the

Diomede Heliport Diomede ( ik, Iŋaliq, russian: Диомид) is a city in the Nome Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, legally coterminous with Little Diomede Island. All the buildings are on the west coast of Little Diomede, ...

, with regular helicopter flights. During the winter, the villagers carve a runway into the thick ice sheet so that bush planes can deliver vital products, such as medicine. Due to annual variations of the ice sheet, the runway changes position every year.

Climate

Summer temperatures average . Winter temperatures average from Annual precipitation averages , and annual snowfall averages . During summer months, cloudy skies and fog prevail. Winds blow consistently from the north, averaging , with gusts of . The Bering Strait is generally frozen between mid-December and mid-June.

Geology

The Little Diomede island is composed of Cretaceous age

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underg ...

quartz monzonite Quartz monzonite is an intrusive, felsic, igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. It is typically a light colored phaneritic (coarse-grained) to porphyritic granitic rock. The plagioclase ...

. The location of the city is the only area which does not have near-vertical cliffs to the water. Behind the city and around the entire island rocky slopes rise at about 40 ° up to the relatively flattened top in . The island has very scant vegetation.

In popular culture

Little Diomede was featured in the first episode of '' Full Circle with Michael Palin'', a 1997

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

documentary series in which the broadcaster

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin w ...

traversed many of the countries of the

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The '' Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire. List of ...

. The Diomede Islands are also featured in the novel '' Further Tales of the City'', by

Armistead Maupin Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. ( ) (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer notable for ''Tales of the City'', a series of novels set in San Francisco. Early life Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Maup ...

, and the

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. " Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries forma ...

based on the book. In addition,

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

visited the island as part of his 2015 series ''Land of the Midnight Sun''.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

Diomede Community Page

Census 2000 information

Diomede School

You CAN see Russia from here!
– ''

Anderson Cooper 360 Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

'' {{Authority control Bering Strait Diomede Islands Islands of Alaska Islands of Nome Census Area, Alaska Islands of the Bering Sea Islands of the Chukchi Sea Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska