The Bering Strait (Russian Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages. Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th: Берингов пролив, Beringov proliv), known to natives as Imakpik,^{[citation needed]} is a sea strait A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or because it between Cape Dezhnev Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev is a cape that forms the easternmost mainland point of Eurasia, on the Chukchi Peninsula in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. It is located between the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea, 82 km across from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska. The Bering Strait lies in between and the Diomede Islands and Fairway Rock are, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka (Чуко́тка), is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug) located in the Far Eastern Federal District, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43' W) of the Asian Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population. During the 20th century Asia's population nearly quadrupled continent and Cape Prince of Wales Cape Prince of Wales is the westernmost point on the mainland of the Americas, Alaska Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million at about two cents per acre . The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959, USA, the westernmost point (168°05' W) of the North American continent, with latitude Latitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body) north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west (or west to east) on maps (particularly so in the Mercator projection) that run either north or south of the equator of about 65° 40' north, slightly south of the polar circle A polar circle is either the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. On Earth, the Arctic Circle is located at a latitude of 66˚ 34', and the Antarctic Circle is located at a latitude of 66˚ 34' S.

The Bering Strait has been the subject of scientific speculation that humans migrated from Asia to North America across a land bridge The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. It was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light due to the southwesterly winds from the Pacific Ocean having lost their moisture over the at a time when lower ocean levels–perhaps a result of glaciers locking up vast amounts of water–exposed a ridge beneath the ocean. This would have allowed humans to walk from Siberia to Alaska, thus populating North and South America (see History of the Americas The history of the Americas is the collective history of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. It begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an Ice Age. These groups are generally believed to have been isolated from peoples of the "Old World" until the coming of Europeans in).^[1]

Geography and science

The Bering Strait is approximately 53 miles (85 km) wide^{[clarification needed]}, with an average depth of 98–160 feet (30–49 m).^[2] It connects the Chukchi Sea Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean (part of the Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying) to the north with the Bering Sea The Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves (part of the Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east) to the south. Although the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev Semion Ivanovich Dezhnyov was a Russian explorer who in 1648 led the expedition that doubled the known extent of the easternmost promontory of the Eurasian continent and discovered that Asia is not connected to Alaska passed by the strait in 1648, it is named after Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (August 12, 1681 in Horsens, Denmark – 19 December [O.S. 8 December] 1741, Bering Island, Russia) was a Danish navigator in the service of the Russian Navy, a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands. The Bering, a Danish Denmark (pronounced /ˈdɛnmɑrk/ ; Danish: Danmark, pronounced [ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊], archaic: [ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊]) is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders-born Russian Other Slavic peoples, especially East Slavs explorer who crossed the strait in 1728. Although considered incorrect spelling today the area is often found spelled as "Behring Strait" in some older texts.

Population

The area is sparsely populated. The Diomede Islands The Diomede Islands are located in the middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska and Siberia, with the Chukchi Sea to the north and the Bering Sea to the south. 9.3 mi to the southeast is Fairway Rock, which is generally not considered part of the Diomede Islands. The islands are sometimes called Tomorrow Island (Big Diomede) and lie directly in the middle of the Bering Strait, and the village in Little Diomede Little Diomede Island 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. Its neighboring island Big Diomede is less than 2.4 miles (4 km) to the west, but is part of Russia and behind the International Date Line has a school which is part of Alaska's Bering Strait School District Bering Strait School District is a school district in northwestern Alaska, United States, serving approximately 1,700 students in grades K-12 in fifteen isolated villages. All schools in the district serve students of all ages, and most classrooms are multi-age. Because the International Date Line The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth opposite the Prime Meridian where the date changes as one travels east or west across it. Roughly along 180° longitude, with diversions to pass around some territories and island groups, it mostly corresponds to the time zone boundary separating −12 and +12 hours runs equidistant between the islands at a distance of 1 mi (1.6 km), the Russian and American sides are usually on different calendar days, with Cape Dezhnev 21 hours ahead of the American side.

The area in the immediate neighborhood on the Alaskan side belongs to the Nome Census Area which has a population of 9,000 people. There is no road from the Bering Strait to the main cities of Alaska. There are a few roads around Nome Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city population was 3,590. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the most populous city in Alaska. Nome is in the Unorganized Borough and. Air and water are the main mode of travel. However there is no regular air connection across the strait, just a few summer charter flights. This is because of a Russian policy only to allow tourists in organized tours, and with special permit to everyone.

The Russian coast belongs to Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka (Чуко́тка), is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug) located in the Far Eastern Federal District. Provideniya Provideniya is an urban-type settlement situated on Komsomolskaya Bay, part of Provideniya Bay in the northeastern part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is located across the Bering Strait from Alaska, and is very close to the International Date Line. The town is served by Provideniya Bay Airport, the closest Russian airport to the United (4,500 people) and Chukotsky (5,200 people) are the two areas located at the Bering Strait. These areas are also roadless.

Expeditions

Semyon Dezhnyov (1648) was the first European to pass through the Bering Strait. Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (August 12, 1681 in Horsens, Denmark – 19 December [O.S. 8 December] 1741, Bering Island, Russia) was a Danish navigator in the service of the Russian Navy, a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands. The Bering entered it in 1728. Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈnuːrdenʃɶld]), also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld (18 November 1832, Helsinki, Finland – 12 August 1901, Dalbyö, Södermanland, Sweden) was a Finnish geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer, and a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists. Born in in 1878/79 sailed along the complete northern coast of Siberia, thereby proving that there was no northern land bridge from Asia to North America.

In July 1989 a British expedition, Kayaks Across The Bering Strait, completed the first sea kayak crossing of the Bering Strait from Wales, in Alaska, to Cape Dezhneva, Siberia. The four expedition members, Robert Egelstaff, Trevor Potts, Greg Barton and Peter Clark, kayaked from Nome up the Alaskan coast, and around Cape Prince of Wales, before crossing the Strait via the Diomede Islands. Having completed the crossing they continued north to Uelen, where they were welcomed by the Soviet Sports Committee and eventually returned to the UK via Moscow. This journey has been described as "The Everest of the Canoeing World" and was recorded in the film "Kayaking Into Tomorrow" (1989). There was a film called "Curtain of Ice" that recorded part of the crossing.

In 1998, Russian adventurer Dmitry Shparo Dmitry Shparo is a Russian Arctic explorer and holder of several endurance records. Shparo gained international fame for twice reaching the North Pole on skis. Reports credit him with leading more expeditions to the polar region than any other explorer. In 1979 Shparo led the first ski expedition from Eurasia to the North Pole and then in 1988 he and his son Matvey made the first known modern crossing of the frozen Bering Strait on skis.

In March 2006 Briton Karl Bushby Karl Bushby is a British ex-paratrooper, walking adventurer and author, currently attempting to be the first person to completely walk an unbroken path around the world. Bushby's trek is known as the Goliath Expedition and French American adventurer Dimitri Kieffer crossed the strait on foot, walking across a frozen 90 km (56 mile) section in 15 days. (BBC) They were soon arrested for not entering Russia through a border control.

Actor Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor who has had success in mainstream, indie and art house films. He is perhaps best known for his role as Mark Renton in the 1996 film Trainspotting, his portrayal of the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and his role as the romantic penniless writer Christian in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge! said in an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that part of the inspiration for his Long Way Round motorcycle journey from London to New York was that, when seen on a map, the gap between Russia and the USA across the Bering Strait looked very small. McGregor and his team crossed the strait with their motorcycles loaded onto a Magadan Airlines plane, flying from Magadan Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast (since 1953), in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939. From 1932 to 1953 it was the administrative center of the Dalstroy, Russia to Anchorage Anchorage is a consolidated city-borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 279,243 municipal residents in 2008 (359,180 residents within the Metropolitan Statistical Area), it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population; only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in, Alaska, USA.

In 1987 swimmer Lynne Cox Lynne Cox is an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer. In 1971, she and her teammates were the first group of teenagers to complete the crossing of the Catalina Island Channel in California. She was always the slowest swimmer in her swim classes. She has twice held the record for the fastest crossing (men or women) of the English swam the two miles (3 km) between the Diomede Islands from Alaska to the Soviet Union in 40 °F (4 °C) water during the last years of the Cold War.

August 2008 marked the first ever crossing of the Bering Strait using an amphibious road going vehicle. The specially modified Land Rover Defender 110 was driven by Steve Burgess and Dan Evans across the straits on its second attempt following the interruption of the first one due to bad weather. The full story can be found here: http://www.capetocape.org.uk/

Bridge or tunnel

In 1864 the Russian-American telegraph The Russian American telegraph also known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition and the Collins Overland telegraph was a $3,000,000 undertaking by the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1865-1867, to lay an electric telegraph line from San Francisco, California to Moscow, Russia company began preparations for a telegraph line to link Europe and America overland via the Bering Strait, but this was abandoned when the Atlantic Cable proved successful.

Suggestions have been made for the construction of a bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a valley, road, body of water, or other physical obstacle, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed, the material used to make it and the funds available to build it, the Bering Strait bridge A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the Bering Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka, Russia, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, United States. The bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia, Africa and Europe with North America and South America. The Bering Strait could be spanned by a, between Alaska Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million at about two cents per acre . The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959 and Siberia Siberia , is a vast region, constituting almost all of Northern Asia and currently the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, as it was in the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire since the 16th century. An alternative connection would be a tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway. The definition of what constitutes a tunnel is not universally agreed upon. Tunnels in general, however, are at least twice as long as they are wide. In addition, they should be completely enclosed on all sides, save for the openings at each end. Some civic planners define a tunnel as 0.1 miles in length or underneath the strait, the TKM-World Link being the most recent such proposal. The construction of such a bridge or tunnel would face unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challenges, and to date, no government has authorized the start of any planning or construction.

Dam or threshold

In September 2008^[3] a plan was published discussing a complete or partial closure of the Bering Strait, by either a dam or a threshold^{[clarification needed]}, both possibly influencing sea ice conditions in the Arctic The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The proposed Diomede Threshold would make use of the salinity Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates. Salinity in Australian English and North American English may also refer to the salt content of soil gradient of water currents through the Bering Strait, allowing only relatively sweet waters from the Alaskan river Yukon The territory was created in 1898 as the Yukon Territory. The federal government's most recent update of the Yukon Act in 2003 confirmed "Yukon", rather than "Yukon Territory", as the current usage standard to flow through the strait. This proposal was made by a private person.

The "Ice Curtain" border

During the Cold War The Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition existing after World War II (1939–1945), primarily between the Soviet Union and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, particularly the United States. Although the primary participants' military forces never, the Bering Strait marked the border between the Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ and the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language The island of Big Diomede The Diomede Islands are located in the middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska and Siberia, with the Chukchi Sea to the north and the Bering Sea to the south. 9.3 mi to the southeast is Fairway Rock, which is generally not considered part of the Diomede Islands. The islands are sometimes called Tomorrow Island (Big Diomede) and in the USSR is only 2.4 mi (4 km) from the island of Little Diomede Little Diomede Island 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. Its neighboring island Big Diomede is less than 2.4 miles (4 km) to the west, but is part of Russia and behind the International Date Line in the USA. Traditionally, the indigenous peoples in the area had frequently crossed the border back and forth for "routine visits, seasonal festivals and subsistence trade", but were prevented from doing so during the Cold War^[4]. The border became known as the "Ice Curtain"^[5]. In 1987, American swimmer Lynne Cox Lynne Cox is an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer. In 1971, she and her teammates were the first group of teenagers to complete the crossing of the Catalina Island Channel in California. She was always the slowest swimmer in her swim classes. She has twice held the record for the fastest crossing (men or women) of the English symbolically helped ease tensions between the two countries by swimming across the border^[6] and was congratulated jointly by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

See also

• List of Russian explorers

References

1. ^ Beck, Roger B.; Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell. ISBN 0-395-87274-X.
2. ^ It is only 53 miles (85 km) wide, and at its deepest point is only 300 feet (91 m) in depth. [1]
3. ^ Diomede Crossroads - Saving the North Pole? Thoughts on plausibility
4. ^ State of Alaska website
5. ^ "Lifting the Ice Curtain", Peter A. Iseman, New York Times, October 23, 1988
6. ^ "Swimming To Antarctica", CBS News, September 17, 2003

• Oliver, James A. (2006, 2007 (Revised)). The Bering Strait Crossing. Information Architects. ISBN 0-9546995-6-4. http://www.beringstraitcrossing.com.
• "Russia Plans World's Longest Undersea Tunnel". Daily Tech. 2007-04-24. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7022. Retrieved 2008-01-11.

Categories: Straits of Russia | Straits of Alaska | Straits of the Arctic Ocean | Landforms of the Chukchi Sea | Bering Sea | Geography of Alaska | Geography of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug | Russia – United States border | International straits

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