Featured Image Credit: NASA
Topics: Weird, Science, World News, US News, Russia
Tom Wood
There are two islands that are separated by only a short cold stretch of water but set apart nearly an entire day thanks to time zones.
You might wonder exactly how it is possible, but if you ever wanted to become a real time-traveller, you need only head up to the remote islands of Big and Little Diomede.
Bring your big coat with you though, because they’re located at the top of the world in the Bering Strait that divides the Russian province of Siberia from the US State of Alaska.
Despite the fact that the gap between Big Diomede on the Russian Side and Little Diomede on the US side is less than three miles, the pair of secluded islands are separated down the middle by the International Date Line, meaning that there exists a 21-hour – or 20 hour at certain times of the year – time zone difference between the two.
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The International Date Line is a notional line that runs a jagged path through the Pacific Ocean, deciding where one day ends and another begins.
So, Big Diomede is almost an entire day ahead of Little Diomede despite the fact that only a short span of water divides them.
During the winter months of the Northern Hemisphere, it could almost be possible to walk between the two of them, given that the sea freezes over.
At other times of the year, it could even be possible to swim or row from one calendar day into another, either forwards or backwards.
Would you have jetlag when you arrive? OK, that’s a bit of a silly suggestion.
To be fair, it would be silly to attempt to traverse the gap anyway, given that it is illegal to travel between the two islands because you’d be crossing from sovereign territory of the United States of America into sovereign territory of Russia.
That’s famously never been a border that you’d want to cross, without the correct permissions at least.
What’s more, if you crossed from USA to Russia, you’d find very little reason to be on Big Diomede, as nobody whatsoever lives there.
There are people who make their home on Little Diomede, with the latest data suggesting that there are about 110 people living there.
The islands take their name from the Greek Saint Diomede, who lived around the third and fourth centuries.
That name came after they were discovered by the Danish-Russian navigator Vitus Bering – who gives his name to the Bering Strait – on August 16 in 1728.
That’s the day in the Russian Orthodox Christian calendar that celebrates – you’ve guessed it – Saint Diomede.
Most people will never be able to make the journey between the two islands, but in August 1987 American swimmer Lynne Cox did make the journey across through the icy waters.
Despite the distance only being 2.7 miles, it must have taken some serious endurance and bravery to achieve that feat.
Perhaps it’s better just to know that this anomaly exists, rather than immersing yourself in icy water and experiencing it for yourself.