About 3.8 kilometers separate the Diomedes Islands. The big one belongs to Russia; the small one to the United States. At this distance, one expects an almost banal proximity. Yet, two invisible boundaries pass between their shores.
One is a maritime border. The other is the international date change line. The two islands are on both sides of this convention, hence their nicknames associated with yesterday and tomorrow. Nothing supernatural happens in the strait: it is the calendars that do not necessarily bear the same date.
This neighborhood makes an abstraction visible. Our maps divide space, but our organization of time also draws its boundaries. The shore opposite can be very close and belong to another civil day. The landscape remains continuous; it is our way of dating it that changes.
What we know
Nicknames do not mean a trip back in time. The exact time difference depends on the time zone rules; it is not fixed here at twenty-four hours.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 20, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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