Little Diomede Island


Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” is an island of Alaska, United States. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaska mainland and Siberia.
Little Diomede's neighboring island, Big Diomede, is about to the west, but is part of Russia and west of the International Date Line. Unlike its larger Russian neighbor, Little Diomede retains a permanent native population. As of the 2010 census, Little Diomede had a population of 115, down from its recorded peak of 178 in 1990. The entirety of the island is in the City of Diomede. 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 section of the border between the U.S. and the USSR separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the "Ice Curtain". In 1987, however, Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede and was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.

Etymology

The Diomede Islands are named after Saint Diomedes. Danish-Russian navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the saint.
Its Inupiaq name Iŋaliq means "the other one" or "the one over there".

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the island has a total area of, 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 west from the mainland, in the middle of the Bering Strait. It is only from the International Date Line and about from the Russian island of Big Diomede.
The highest point on Little Diomede Island is .
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 age granite or quartz monzonite. 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, a 1997 BBC documentary series in which the broadcaster Michael Palin traversed many of the countries of the Pacific Rim. The Diomede Islands are also featured in the novel Further Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin.