Two Neighboring Islands with a Time Difference of 21 Hours

The distances between the meridians cause the time difference, or briefly As the distance increases, we all know that the time difference increases. So much so that when we want to meet with someone abroad, we arrange meetings according to the time difference, and we do the stock market transactions according to the American and Asian time.

Well just to each other How can these two islands, which are 3.8 km away, experience a difference of 21 hours?

The time difference between these two islands is due to a meridian called the “date change line”.

This line 180° east or west of the prime meridian. It follows the approximately 180° meridian, but deviates east across the Bering Strait to avoid dividing Siberia, then west to include the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, and east again south of the equator to make certain island groups coincide with New Zealand. .

There are western meridians on the east side of this line and east meridians on the west side.

Therefore It is one day ahead in the west, where the eastern meridians are, and one day back in the east, where the western meridians are.

For example, if you switch from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere on Friday, July 14, the date and day will be set back one day as Thursday, July 13. If If you switch from the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere, the date and day are advanced.

The Diomede Islands are located halfway between Alaska and Siberia.

Diomede Islands in the Pacific Ocean are the northernmost islands. To the north is the Chukchi Sea, and to the south is the Bering Sea.

One of these two islands, called the Big and Little Diomede Islands, belongs to Russia and the other to America.

Great Diomede, Inaliq in Russia, Also known as Nunarbuk or Ratmanov Island Little Diomede is known as Krusenstern Island in America.

The first person to reach the Bering Strait was the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev. He reported that his natives had two islands with bone lip ornaments, but he did not know which islands this island was. Danish sailor Vitus Bering, He discovered the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day that St. Diomedes was commemorated, and therefore named the islands after the Greek St. Diomedes.

In winter, an ice bridge covers the distance between these two islands; Thus, it is theoretically possible to walk between America and Russia, but it is legally forbidden to travel between these two islands.

The Treaty of 1867, which ended the Alaska conflict between America and Russia, used these islands to determine the border between the two countries.

During the Cold War, this border formed the border between America and the Soviet Union and became known as the “Ice Curtain”.

In the summer of 1995, British television actor and documentary presenter Michael Palin embarked on a counterclockwise trek of the Pacific Rim, covering Little Diomede Island and 18 countries, as part of the BBC series Full Circle.

At the end of his eight-month trek he considered setting foot on the Little Diomede island again, but He couldn’t do that because of the choppy sea.

The Great Diomede Island was Earth’s easternmost before the International Date Line and was the first landmass to enter the new year as it used local time.

However, when local time is used, a large area in eastern Russia and New Zealand also share the same time zone. New Zealand also has daylight saving time at the end of December, but not in Russia. This was when the International Date Line moved east of Kiribati and It created controversy in 1995 when that country’s easternmost time zone was now the oldest in the world.

After a military base was established there in 1948, the Soviet government relocated the indigenous people of Great Diomede Island to mainland Russia.

Only military units live on the big island now. Little Diomede had a population of 170 people, which fell to 115 at the 2010 census, although the entire island includes the city of Diomede, the entire island is in the village area on the west side of the island.

There is a school, a post office and a shop in this village. Some island residents are famous for their ivory carvings. Weather permitting, with the island as part of the Americas Basic Air Service. commercial air contact continues.