Diomede is an Iñupiaq village on the west coast of Little Diomede Island, located less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the International Date Line, 2.4 miles (3.9 km) east of Big Diomede (Russia), about 194 miles (312 km) south-west of Kotzebue, and 27 miles (44 km) north-west of Wales, Alaska. The Diomede Islands lie in the middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska to the east and the Siberian Chukchi Peninsula to the west. To the north is the Chukchi Sea; to the south, the Bering Sea. Danish navigator Vitus Bering named the islands for Saint Diomedes of Tarsus when he sighted them in 1728—the day the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the saint. In 1730 surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev, who explored the Bering Strait, renamed them the “Gvozdev Islands”. The Iñupiaq name for Little Diomede is Iŋaliq, meaning “the other one” or “the one over there”. The islands are geologic exposures of quartz monzonite plutons—igneous intrusions that formed between 112 and 85 million years ago. King Island and Sledge Island, in the Bering Sea off the coast of the Seward Peninsula, are also quartz monzonite plutons. Quartz monzonite is a light-colored, coarse-grained, granitic rock. Because of its appearance it is often mistaken for granite; however, granite contains more than 20% quartz, whereas quartz monzonite contains only 5–20% quartz and nearly equal proportions of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars.

For millennia after the last ice age, the Bering Strait served as a migration corridor between Asia and America, with the Diomede Islands acting as stepping stones for the Iñupiat, who traversed the narrow waters in skin boats. Big Diomede lies 21 miles (34 km) from Asia’s Cape Dezhnev, while Little Diomede sits 22 miles (35 km) from America’s Cape Prince of Wales; on clear days, Siberia and Alaska are visible from each other. Little Diomede, roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, rises steeply to 1300 feet (396 m) above sea level, with a single landing on its western slope where Diomede village has stood for at least 3,000 years. Before 1850, three villages existed—two on Big Diomede (Imaqliq and Kunga) and one on Little Diomede—with residents moving freely between the islands and both mainlands. Archaeological evidence suggests the islands were culturally closer to Asia before European contact, as islanders acquired iron, beads, tobacco and fishing nets through Siberian trade networks. When American whalers arrived around 1850, migration patterns reversed, flowing predominantly eastward: East Cape, Siberians settled on Big Diomede, Big Diomede residents moved to Little Diomede, and some families migrated to Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, drawn by whaling operations and Nome‘s emergence as a trade hub after the 1898 gold rush. A Lutheran school opened on Little Diomede in 1915, attracting families from Big Diomede and Siberia. In 1924 Soviet officials imposed travel restrictions, established border posts and banned foreign traders without permits. Big Diomede’s residents fled to the American side, and by 1930 both villages there were abandoned. Today Big Diomede remains uninhabited except for a Russian military post, a cold-war relic.

Little Diomede is now the sole settlement in the Bering Strait, with 82 residents in 2020—down from 115 in 2010 and 146 in 2000. Because the ground is solid rock the village lacks a water distribution system. Water is drawn from a mountain spring and stored in a steel tank for household use, while diesel generators provide electricity, with fuel delivered by barge each summer. The village endures severe weather, erosion and coastal flooding, but the most significant threat is reduced Bering Sea ice. For generations residents relied on shore-fast winter ice as a landing strip for planes carrying people, medicine and supplies. Hunters also depend on the ice to reach walrus, a subsistence staple. Recent changes in sea ice and weather have curtailed access to walrus and other resources, limiting air travel to helicopters. Moreover, diminished sea ice heightens vulnerability to extreme weather. Late-forming sea ice allows cyclonic and anticyclonic storms to generate damaging swells that batter the village, especially during high tides and autumn storm surges. Such events have damaged utilities and power plants, causing outages in homes, the school and the store. A US Army Corps of Engineers survey found advancing erosion threatens the community center, residences, water and fuel tanks, roads, a boatyard, the school, medical clinic, church, storage facilities and sites of cultural and archaeological significance. In 2003 the community installed a gabion rock wall to combat erosion, but it was quickly damaged by a severe autumn storm. Read more here and here. Explore more of Diomede and Little Diomede Island here: