Today I learned that the USA and Russia are less than 2.5 miles apart!
Sounds crazy? It's just geography...
If you think of what lies between Russia and the USA, namely the Pacific Ocean, you might be forgiven for thinking that the two countries are quite far from each other. The Pacific Ocean is so big that if the Moon fell into it, it could easily fit (only in terms of its diameter, obviously).
The point here is that the Pacific Ocean is really tiny at its northernmost point: the Bering Strait, between mainland Alaska and Siberia. At its narrowest point, the Strait is 51 miles wide. Moreover, in the middle of the Strait lie two tiny rocky islands, the Diomede Islands. They are just 2.4 miles apart at their closest point and...guess what? One of them (Big Diomede) belongs to Russia, the other one (Little Diomede) belongs to the USA :-)
Not only the US-Russia border runs across them...also the International Date Line does! So, Big Diomede is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede (not 23 hours as you might guess, due to local time zone arrangements....).
So far, so close....
So near, yet so far.
Can you imagine growing up near the border where with binoculars you could see Russian activity periodically?
They were one once :)
Interesting info!
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
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