We all know that the distances between the meridians cause the time difference, or in short, the time difference increases as the distances increase. 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.
So, how can these two islands, which are only 3.8 km away from each other, 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 is 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 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.
The Diomede Islands are the northernmost islands within the Pacific Ocean. 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.
Big Diomede is also known as Inaliq, Nunarbuk or Ratmanov Island in Russia, while 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 navigator Vitus Bering discovered the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day of St. Diomedes’ commemoration, and named them after the Greek St. Diomedes for this reason.
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 host Michael Palin embarked on a counter-clockwise 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 was unable to do so due to 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 caused controversy in 1995 when the International Date Line was moved east of Kiribati and 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, commercial air contact with the island is maintained as part of the Americas Basic Air Service.
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