Diomede and little Diomede

Two islands if you set off from one of them today will arrive yesterday

But there is something exceptionally strange about the islands of Big Diomede (in Russia’s far east) and Little Diomede (within the borders of the United States) that defy the law of time zones, they are two adjacent islands and the distance of only 4 km but there is a 21-hour time difference between them.

Two islands between them can be walked during the winter because the water is frozen, but the vast time difference can change normal events in strange ways. When the time is an afternoon on the Russian island, it is also afternoon time on the American island, but on the Russian island this afternoon, and on the American island yesterday afternoon, that is, if you live on the Russian island and decide to go “on this afternoon, April 12” to visit a friend living on the American island, you will reach “yesterday afternoon, April 11.

But what is the reason for this huge time lag?

Because of the privileged location of the two islands, the International Date Line (IDL) passes between them, an imaginary line that passes through the Pacific Ocean and adjusts the time zone in the world, so the Greater Diomede Island is 21 hours ahead of the smaller island of Diomede, so it became called Tomorrow’s island and yesterday