Little Diomede Island

Little Diomede Island or Yesterday Island (Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island, остров Крузенштерна) is an inhabited island, which is off of the coast of Alaska, and is a part of Alaska. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaskan mainland and Siberia. The island's one town is also called the town of Diomede.

Big Diomede Island, is located 2.33 mi to the West of Little Diomede Island and is a part of Russia. In addition to an international boundary, the International Date Line also separates the two islands.

As of 2021, the town of Diomede had a population of 82, down from its recorded peak of 208 in 1998. All of the land of the Little Diomede Island is officially within the town of Diomede (named Iŋaliq as well). 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 August 1987, however, Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approx. 2.2 mi) and was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.

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.

Its Inupiaq name Iŋaliq means "the other one" or "the one over there". Little Diomede island is nicknamed as "Yesterday Island," while Big Diomede Island is nicknamed as "Tomorrow Island." This is due to the fact that in addition to an international boundary separating the two islands, the International Date Line also separates the two islands, thus causing the date on Big Diomede Island to perpetually be one day ahead of the date on Little Diomede Island.

History

 * See Diomede, Alaska (town)

Geography


According to the United States Census Bureau, the island has a total area of 2.8 sqmi, 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 25 km west from the mainland, in the middle of the Bering Strait. It is only 0.6 km from the International Date Line and about 2.4 mi from the Russian island of Big Diomede.

The highest point on Little Diomede Island is 494 m (about halfway along the west coast, about 1.5 mi 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.

Climate
Summer temperatures average 40 to 50 F. Winter temperatures average from 6 to 10 F. Annual precipitation averages 10 in, and annual snowfall averages 30 in. During summer months, cloudy skies and fog prevail. Winds blow consistently from the north, averaging 15 kn, with gusts of 60 to(-). 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 1148 - 1191 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. 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.