Little Diomede Island Explained

Little Diomede
Location:Bering Strait
Archipelago:Diomede Islands
Area Sqmi:2.43
Elevation Ft:1621
Population:77[1]
Population As Of:2023
Density Sqmi:33.72
Ethnic Groups:96% Iŋaliq Iñupiaq[2]
Country: United States
Timezone1:Alaska

UTC −9/−8

Map:Alaska

Little Diomede Island or Yesterday Island (Inupiaq: Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island,[3] Russian: остров Крузенштерна|translit=ostrov Kruzenshterna) is an inhabited island off the coast of Alaska, and is a part of Alaska. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the Bering Strait between the Alaskan mainland and Siberia. The island has one town, also called Diomede.

Big Diomede Island, located 2.33abbr=offNaNabbr=off west of Little Diomede Island, is part of Russia. Thus the two islands are separated by an international boundary. The International Date Line also runs between the two islands.

As of 2021, the town of Diomede had a population of 82, down from its recorded peak of 208 in 1998.[4] All the land on Little Diomede Island is officially within the town of Diomede (which, like the island as a whole, is also called Inupiaq: Iŋaliq).[2] The island is not part of any organized borough, so some services that are normally provided to Alaskan towns by boroughs are instead provided to it directly by the state. For census purposes, it is included in the Nome Census Area.

During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the USSR that separates Big and Little Diomede became known as the "Ice Curtain". Despite this nickname implying chilly relations, when Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approx. 2.2miles) in August 1987, she was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.[5]

Etymology

The Diomede Islands are named after Saint Diomedes. Danish-Russian navigator Vitus Bering (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 celebrates the memory of the saint.[6]

Its Inupiaq name Inupiaq: Iŋaliq means "the other one" or "the one over there".[7] The two islands are respectively nicknamed "Yesterday Island" (Little Diomede Island) and "Tomorrow Island” (Big Diomede Island) because the International Date Line runs between them, making the date on Little Diomede Island always one day earlier than the date on Big Diomede Island.

History

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the island has a total area of 2.8sqmi, all of it land. On the western shore of the island is the village of Diomede, also known as Iŋaliq.

Little Diomede Island is located about 25km (16miles) west from the mainland, in the middle of the Bering Strait. It is only 0.61NaN1 from the International Date Line and about 2.4miles from the Russian island of Big Diomede.

The highest point on Little Diomede Island is 494m (1,621feet) (about halfway along the west coast, about 1.5abbr=offNaNabbr=off southeast of the village, facing the southern tip of Big Diomede).

There is a heliport, the Diomede Heliport, with regular helicopter flights. In the past, locals carved a runway into the thick ice sheet so that bush planes could deliver vital products, such as medicine and grocery supplies. Due to annual variations of the ice sheet, the runway would change position every year. However, climate change has meant that sea ice has neither been thick nor stable enough to support landing a plane safely on an ice runway (minimum required sea-ice thickness was 4.5 feet, and no open water to the north of the island), so the last Bering Air flight landed here in May 2013 and there has not been an ice runway since.[8] [9]

Climate

Summer temperatures average 40F50F. Winter temperatures average from 6F10F. Annual precipitation averages 10lk=inNaNlk=in, and annual snowfall averages 300NaN0. During summer months,cloudy skies and fog prevail. Winds blow consistently from the north, averaging 15kn, with gusts of 60to(-). The Bering Strait is generally frozen between mid-December and mid-June.[2]

Geology

The Little Diomede island is composed of Cretaceous age granite or quartz monzonite.[10] [11] 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 1148feet-1191feetft (-ft). 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 documentary series in which the broadcaster Michael Palin traversed many of the countries of the Pacific Rim.[12] The Diomede Islands are also featured in the novel Further Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin, and the miniseries based on the book. In addition, Alexander Armstrong visited the island as part of his 2015 series Land of the Midnight Sun.

Little Diomede was also featured in the 1952 film Arctic Flight, starring Wayne Morris and Lola Albright.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: SUB-IP-EST2021-POP-02.xlsx . US Census Bureau . December 29, 2022.
  2. http://www.kawerak.org/ledps/diomede.pdf Local Economic Development Plan for Diomede, 2012–2017
  3. Web site: The American Local History Network. https://web.archive.org/web/20120424100037/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ak/state/diomede.html. dead. April 24, 2012.
  4. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/tables/1990-2000/cities/totals/su-99-7_ak.txt
  5. Web site: Lynne Cox swims into communist territory. History. 7 August 2017.
  6. Web site: Russia.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20080920223833/http://www.russia.com/islands/diomede-islands/. dead. September 20, 2008.
  7. Book: Milepost. Alaska Wilderness Milepost. 1990. Graphic Arts Center. 978-0-88240-289-5. 327. [N]ame for the village is Inalik, meaning 'the other one' or 'the one over there{{'-}}]. .
  8. Web site: Q&A: On a Bering Sea island, disappearing ice threatens a way of life . 2023-05-22 . www.science.org . en.
  9. Web site: Little Diomede . 2023-05-22 . Bering Air . en-US.
  10. http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3131/sim3131_pamphlet.pdf Till, A. B., et al., Bedrock Geologic Map of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, and Accompanying Conodont Data, Pamphlet to accompany Scientific Investigations Map 3131, USGS
  11. Gualtieri . Lyn . Julie Brigham-Grette . Julie Brigham-Grette . March 2001 . The Age and Origin of the Little Diomede Island Upland Surface . . 54 . 1 . 12–21 . 10.14430/arctic759 . 40512273.
  12. Web site: Palin's Travels - Full Circle. PalinsTravels.co.uk. 8 March 2016.