Diomede Islands

views updated

Diomede Islands (dī´əmēd), pair of rocky islands in Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The larger island, Big Diomede, is Russian, while the smaller is part of Alaska. At 2 mi (3 km) apart, the Diomedes represent the closest approach of U.S. and Russian land masses. The first European explorer to the islands was the Danish Vitus Bering in 1728.

More From encyclopedia.com