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 ...

, 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 i ...

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 ...

. 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 Isl ...

, 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 ...

. 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. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, 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 nati ...

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

and

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

Etymology

The Diomede Islands are named after Saint Diomedes. 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 th ...

, 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. ...

, 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, 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 The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

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 un ...

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 plagio ...

. 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 ''Full Circle with Michael Palin'' is a 10-part 1997 documentary television series, first broadcast on BBC One in 1997. Presented by Michael Palin, ''Full Circle'' was the third of a series of programmes in which Palin made and documented lengt ...

'', a 1997 BBC 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, 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 format ...

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