Discovered the Bering Strait. Bering Strait: Corridor to the New World

The Bering Strait connects the North Arctic Ocean with the Bering Sea and separates two continents: Asia and the Russian-American border passes through it. It is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish captain who sailed it in 1728. However, there is still debate about who discovered the Bering Strait. The delta, which could only be reached through this strait, was explored by the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev back in 1649. But later his discovery went unnoticed.

The depth of the strait averages 30-50 meters, and the width at its narrowest point reaches 85 kilometers. Numerous islands exist in the strait, including Diomede Island and Some Waters. Bering Sea enter the Arctic Ocean through the strait, but most of them flow into Pacific Ocean. In winter, the Bering Strait is prone to severe storms, the sea is covered with ice up to 1.5 meters thick. Drift ice remains here even in the middle of summer.

Approximately 20-25 thousand years ago, during ice age, the monumental continental glaciers that formed in the Earth contained so much water that the level of the world's oceans was more than 90 meters lower than it is now. Near Bering Strait the fall in sea level exposed a massive, glacier-free tract known as the Bering Bridge or Beringia. He connected

modern Alaska with northeast Asia. Many scientists suggest that Beringia had tundra vegetation, and even reindeer were found on it. The isthmus opened the way for people to the North American continent. 10-11 thousand years ago due to the sea level rose, and the bridge across the Bering Strait was completely flooded.

In theory, today, in order to get from Russian Chukotka to American Alaska, it is enough to sail two hours on the ferry. However, both the US and Russia restrict access to the reservoir. It is practically impossible for either an American or a Russian inhabitant to obtain permission to swim in the Bering Strait. Sometimes adventurers illegally try to cross it by kayak, by swimming or on ice.

There is an erroneous opinion that the strait in winter time completely freezes, and it can be easily crossed over the ice. However, there is a strong northerly current which usually results in the formation of large channels. open water. Sometimes these channels are clogged with moving pieces of ice, so it is theoretically possible, moving from piece to piece, and in some areas moving by swimming, to cross the strait.

Currently, there are two known cases of successful crossing of the Bering Strait. The first was recorded in 1998, when a father and son from Russia tried to walk to Alaska. They spent many days at sea on drifting blocks of ice, until finally they were brought to the shores of Alaska. And not so long ago, in 2006, the English traveler Karl Bushby and his American friend Dimitri Kiefer made the return trip. In Chukotka, they were detained by the Russian FSB and deported back to the United States. There were several other similar attempts, but they all ended with the fact that the rescuers had to use helicopters to lift people from ice blocks.

The Bering Strait separates Eurasia and America. It is the modern border between Russian Chukotka and Alaska. This strait is very difficult to access due to changeable weather, strong winds and ice. Therefore, it was almost impossible to walk along it in the 18th century.

Who is the Bering Strait named after?

As mentioned above, the Bering Strait is natural boundary Russia. Its discovery took place in the 18th century and is associated with the expeditions of V. Bering. It was in its part that the strait was named. V. Bering made several voyages in the Arctic Ocean. Their goal was to find northern route to Asia. Therefore, you should consider the features of his voyages in more detail:

• V. Bering has been in the Russian service since the time of Peter the Great. In 1725 the First Kamchatka Expedition was organized. Its participants first reached Okhotsk, where they built a ship and sailed north on it;
• The result of this expedition was to obtain information about the shores of Kamchatka and the discovery of the Bering Strait. Actually, at that time the strait was not yet so named;
• after the report in St. Petersburg on the results of the first expedition, the Second Kamchatka expedition was organized. At the same time, V. Bering was given the task of penetrating into America and understanding how close its shores are from Russian Kamchatka;
• during the next voyage, V. Bering discovered and described the Aleutian Islands and some others geographic features. In fact, his expeditions marked the beginning of the colonization of Alaska by Russia.

Thus, the Bering Strait is named after the Russian navigator V. Bering, who lived in the middle of the 18th century.

The death of a navigator

During these voyages, Bering Island, the Commander Islands and others were discovered. During the voyage, Bering's ship was badly damaged by a storm and the sailors could not reach Russia. The team stayed for the winter on the island, later named after V. Bering. During the winter, 29 people out of 75 in the crew died, including 60-year-old V. Bering. The reason for the death of the sailors was the lack of vitamins, cold and lack of food.

At the beginning of the 18th century, many were interested in the question “is Asia connected with America or not?”. For the first time, the Paris Academy of Sciences, of which Peter was formally a member, turned to Peter I with a request to equip the expedition. Big influence on Peter I in this matter was the famous German scientist Leibniz. As a result, on December 23, 1724, Peter instructed the Admiralty Board to equip an expedition to Kamchatka under the command of a worthy naval officer. The Admiralty Board proposed to put Captain Bering at the head of the expedition, Peter I agreed with this candidacy. On January 6, 1725 (just a few weeks before his death), Peter himself wrote instructions for the First Kamchatka Expedition.

Here it is necessary to mention that the strait between Asia and America was discovered back in 1648 by the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev. But the results of his campaign were not published. And neither Peter, nor the Admiralty Board, nor Vitus Bering himself knew about them. The historian Miller came across information about Dezhnev's campaign in Yakutsk only in 1736, during the Great Northern Expedition. However, honor official opening the strait went to Bering.

In addition to Bering, naval officers Aleksey Chirikov and Martyn Shpanberg, surveyors, navigators, and shipwrights were assigned to the expedition. On January 24, 1725, Chirikov left St. Petersburg with his team; on February 8, he arrived in Vologda. A week later, Bering joined him with other members of the expedition. The number of full-time members of the expedition alone, both those sent from St. Petersburg and those who joined along the way, reached 20 specialists. In total, under the command of Vitus Bering, including the auxiliary staff (rowers, cooks, etc.), there were about 100 people.

2 Okhotsk

The expedition covered the distance from Vologda to Tobolsk in 43 days. After a month's rest, we set off again. Almost the entire summer of 1725 the team spent on the road. The winter of 1725-1726 was spent in Ilimsk. On June 16, all expedition units arrived in Yakutsk. And only on July 30, 1727, in the third year after departure from St. Petersburg, Bering and his team reached Okhotsk in separate groups. Upon arrival in Okhotsk, without wasting time, they began to build the ship.

On August 22, 1727, the newly built galliot ship "Fortuna" and the small boat accompanying it, which arrived from Kamchatka, left Okhotsk and headed east.

3 Nizhnekamchatsk

The way from Okhotsk to west coast Kamchatka took a week and August 29, 1727 travelers have already seen the coast of Kamchatka. Despite the fact that by that time the Russians had already more or less settled in Kamchatka, Bering had no idea about the size of the peninsula. The expedition commander decided to land on west bank and during the winter to move to the eastern coast, to Nizhnekamchatsk. At the same time, he had no idea that southern point Kamchatka, they did not swim quite a bit. Bering went to the mouth of the Bolshaya River and ordered to drag equipment and supplies to the shore.

It took several months to transport all the property, including materials for building ships, weapons, ammunition, provisions, to the opposite coast of Kamchatka. On foot, along the rivers and on dog sleds, the expedition covered more than 800 miles.

April 4, 1728 in Nizhnekamchatsk solemnly laid new ship. Construction proceeded remarkably quickly. On June 9, the ship was already completed. And on July 9, 1728, the boat "Saint Gabriel" under full sail, with 44 crew members on board, left the mouth of the Kamchatka River and headed northeast.

4 Strait

Only a little more than a month lasted sailing north along the coast of Asia. August 11, 1728 "Saint Gabriel" crossed the strait that separates Asia from America. But at that time, the sailors could not know whether this or that was spilled. The next day they noticed that the land, past which they had gone on the same course, was left behind on the left. August 13 ship driven strong wind crossed the Arctic Circle.

On August 15, the expedition entered the Chukchi Sea and continued sailing to the north-northeast in complete fog. The Chukotka land no longer extended further north. No other land was visible. At this point, Bering decided that the expedition had completed its task. He did not find any American coast in the line of sight. There was no isthmus further north. Having gone a little further north, to latitude 67 "18", Bering on August 16 gave the order to return to Kamchatka. Already on September 2, 1728, the "Saint Gabriel" returned to the Nizhnekamchatka harbor. Here the expedition decided to spend the winter.

Bering understood that he had completed only part of the task. He didn't find America. Therefore, in the summer of next year, he made another attempt to break through to the American shores. Putting to sea in June 1729, the expedition traveled due east for 200 miles and did not meet any signs of land. We turned back. But on the way to Okhotsk they bypassed Kamchatka from the south and established the exact coordinates of the southern tip of the peninsula. June 23, 1729 "Saint Gabriel" arrived in Okhotsk. And on March 1, 1730, members of the expedition arrived in St. Petersburg.

The Bering Strait separates Eurasia from America. It is located slightly south of the Arctic Circle at a latitude of approximately 65 ° 40 ° N. sh. Warmer air flows north through the strait surface water from the Bering Sea, to the south along the western coastal strip - cold water from the Arctic Ocean.

Ratmanov Island, located in the Bering Strait, is the easternmost point of Russia. Him and neighboring island Krusenstern was discovered by the expedition of Mikhail Gvozdev (died after 1759).
From October to August, the Bering Strait is covered with drifting ice.
In paleogeography, the region to which the strait belongs is called Beringia, meaning by this those periods when Asia North America were connected due to a drop in the level of the World Ocean, and the region of the Bering Strait and the continental shelf surrounding the continents was dry land. The length of this piece of land from north to south in the region of the current strait was up to 2000 km, and along this wide passage there was a mutual exchange of fauna and flora between the Old and New Worlds, and subsequently two waves of migrations of ancient man passed through it.

Story

According to latest research, the first wave of migration passed through the Bering Isthmus 25-39 thousand years ago. These were the ancestors of certain American peoples, for example, the Tlingit in the southeast of Alaska and the Fuegians at the southern tip South America. Subsequently, Beringia was covered with a glacier for almost 15 thousand years, and only shortly before the flooding of these lands at the end of the last ice age, about 11 thousand years ago, the path through Beringia was reopened, and the ancestors of the Paleo-Indians migrated along it. And much later, the Aleuts and Eskimos, who used to live in Northeast Asia, migrated to New World on the ice, this, already the third migration, did not interfere with the presence of the strait.
In the history of the development of the Far North, the process of searching for a place where Asia and North America are connected (or separated) was called "search for Northeast Passage". By the time this search began, the strait had already existed for several thousand years, but this was not yet known. The search proceeded simultaneously from the north and from the south. From the north, the work was extremely difficult due to the fact that the way by sea was long, and most the seas of the Arctic Ocean were ice-bound.
Nevertheless, for the first time it was possible to pass the strait entirely from north to south, and the Russian navigator Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev (1605-1673) did it. Cossack ataman and merchant, he was in 1648 during the expedition for the "walrus bone" (as the tusks of these marine mammals) and furs in a storm passed the strait between Asia and America along its entire length on cochs ( sailing ships with a hinged rudder and oars), of which only three survived. In honor of Semyon Dezhnev, a cape was named, which is the extreme northeastern tip of Asia.
For a long time, no one knew about Dezhnev's discovery, and the navigator himself, who was a brave traveler, but had no education, did not realize its importance.
Officially, the honor of opening the strait belongs to Vitus Bering (1681-1741), a Danish officer in the service of the Russian Emperor Peter I (1672-1725). Shortly before his death, Tsar Peter sent Bering with an expedition to Far East on a secret mission: to find the isthmus or strait between Asia and North America.
In 1728, on the boat "Saint Gabriel", the Bering expedition went through the strait to, although they did not see the American coast. Nevertheless, the fact of the existence of the strait was proved, and it was named after Bering.
The Bering Strait is located between Eurasia and North America, it connects (the Chukchi Sea) with the Pacific Ocean (). Diomede Islands, belonging to Russia and the United States, divide the strait into three passages. In the middle of the Bering Strait, between the Diomede Islands, passes state border Russian Federation and the United States of America.
The Bering Strait is located between eastern point Asia (Cape Dezhnev) and most western point North America (Cape Prince of Wales).
In the middle of the Bering Strait are the Diomede Islands, and between them is the state border of Russia and the United States. The demarcation (marking) of the border was carried out in 1867 in accordance with the terms of the agreement on the sale of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands by Russia to the North American United States.
The Russian island of Ratmanov (Big Diomede) is larger in area, administratively it belongs to the Chukotsky district of the Chukotka autonomous region. There is no permanent population on the island, but there is an outpost of Russian border guards, as well as a station for polar explorers. Here is one of the most numerous bird colonies in the region, where 11 species of sea birds live with a total number of over 4 million individuals.
In general, the fauna of the Bering Strait is rich. This is due to the fact that sea ​​waters, moving from the Bering Sea to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, are relatively warm and rich in food. There are a lot of fish, especially salmon, and marine mammals, including the bowhead whale, beluga whale, gray whale, Pacific walrus, ringed seal, striped seal, spotted seal, bearded seal (sea hare). The polar bear also lives on the coasts of the Bering Strait.
The American island of Krusenstern in the USA is called Little Diomede, its Eskimo name is Ingalik, or Ignaluk, which means "lying opposite". Only 3.76 km separate the Russian and american islands. Kruzenshtern Island can be called relatively inhabited: there are small town Diomede with a population of 115 people. Administratively, the island is included in the "unorganized borough" - part american state Alaska, independent of the sixteen other Alaskan "organized boroughs." Every winter locals cut through the thick layer of snow runway for aircraft local aviation bringing cargo from continental Alaska.
In the years cold war the Soviet-American border was closed here - and local residents lost the opportunity to visit each other, as was customary before. Because of this, the local border was then called the "ice curtain" (by analogy with the "iron curtain").
Nowadays border area Russia in the Bering Strait remains a closed zone, which requires special permission to visit.
Russia and the United States periodically discuss the issue of connecting the shores of the Bering Strait (Chukotka and Alaska) through a tunnel or bridge. The first such projects date back to 1864, when the Russian-American Telegraph Company was about to build a land-based telegraph line across the strait. The project failed due to competition with submarine lines. telegraph cable across the Atlantic.
Critics of the project say that the construction of a tunnel or a bridge is impossible, since it is beyond the modern technical capabilities of mankind: the distance between the banks of the strait at the narrowest point is large (86 km), such a large-scale construction on an uninhabited territory is practically impossible, and construction costs will never pay off . Supporters of the project to connect the shores of the strait emphasize the political factor: the bridge (or tunnel) will help strengthen relations between Russia and the United States.

general information

Origin: tectonic.

Islands: Diomeda, Ratmanova (Big Diomede, Imaklik) - Russia; Kruzenshtern Island (Small Diomede, Ingalik, Ignaluk) - USA.

The largest settlements : Uelen (northeast of the Chukotka Peninsula, 712 people, - 2012); Wales (west of the Seward Peninsula, 145 people - 2010); the city of Diomede (Kruzenshtern Island, 115 people - 2010).

Languages: Russian, Chukchi, English, Eskimo-Aleut languages.

Monetary units: Russian ruble, U.S. dollar.

Numbers

Width (smallest): 86 km.
Max Depth: 49 m.
The smallest fairway depth: 36 m.

Distance: from Ratmanov Island to the coast of Chukotka - 35.68 km; from Kruzenshtern Island to the coast of Alaska - 25 km.

Climate and weather

Average air temperature in January: -15 to -25°C.

Average air temperature in July: from +5 to +10°С.

Average annual rainfall: 500-600 mm.
Average annual wind speed: 7.5 m/s.

Relative humidity: 85%.

Economy

Attractions

Ratmanov Island(Russia): large bird colonies, walrus rookeries, a place of mass migration of gray whales

Krusenstern Island(USA): City of Diomede

Natural: national park"Beringia" (Alaska, USA), natural and ethnic park "" (Russia), Cape Dezhnev (Russia), Cape Prince of Wales (USA)

Other: international line date changes

Curious facts

Koch is a sea sailing vessel of Siberian fishermen, hunters and merchants. Kochi were wooden, with one mast and oars. A feature of the koch was the so-called "kotsa" - a special additional hull lining that could withstand the pressure of ice.

After Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, the dates in Alaska were shifted back one day to synchronize with the US calendar date, as they previously corresponded to the Russian calendar date.

In 1971, the Semyon Dezhnev icebreaker was launched, and is still serving as a port icebreaker sea ​​port St. Petersburg.

The most high point on the island of Ratmanov is called Mount Roof, its height is 505 m.

The name "Beringia" (Bering Land Bridge) is a national park in the state of Alaska (USA). The park was created in 1978 on an area of ​​1052.6 thousand hectares to protect the peculiar northern coastal landscapes, and especially lakes, frozen lava flows and hot springs, as well as paleontological monuments with the remains of the "Beringian" fauna. Also "Beringia" is the name of the natural-ethnic park on the territory of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Russia), formed in 1993.

A series named after Bering geographical objects: Bering Strait, Bering Sea, Bering Island, Bering Glacier (Alaska, USA).

On Ratmanov Island in 1976, the first and so far the only individual hummingbird was seen that flew into Russian territory. The little pioneer belonged to the species of buffy hummingbird.

The Bering Strait has repeatedly tried to cross a variety of ways. In 1913, the German captain Max Gottschalk was the first to cross the strait not on board a sea vessel, but on dog sled. In 1979, the Frenchman Arnaud de Rosnay crossed the Bering Strait on a windsurfer. In 1987, American swimmer Lynn Cox made a symbolic swim in the Bering Strait in order to "destroy the" ice curtain "". In 1998 Russian travelers Dmitry and Matvey Shparo crossed the strait on skis. In 2011, Russian kitesurfers Yevgeny Novozheev and Konstantin Aksenov managed to cross the strait on water on a kiteboard using a kite.

Ratmanov Island - Russian territory, the first to meet New Year due to its proximity to the International Date Line.

Local residents on the shores and islands of the Bering Strait are allowed to harvest marine mammals for food. The meat of a sea animal is a necessary component of the diet of the indigenous people of Chukotka: this is the only way they get the proteins, vitamins and microelements necessary for the body.

In 1956, the USSR proposed to the United States a project for the joint construction of a dam across the Bering Strait in order to increase the temperature of the waters of the Arctic Ocean and accelerate melting sea ​​ice. According to the project, warm water would be pumped through a dam into the Arctic Ocean. The American side refused to participate in the project because of its gigantic cost.

Bering Strait: Geography

For many thousands of kilometers (for someone, perhaps closer) in the far east and almost in the same remote west is the edge of our mainland. It is separated from American continent wide strait. It also connects two oceans - the Arctic and the Pacific. We are talking about the Bering Strait. Its delta was known as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, but it was officially discovered in the first half of the eighteenth (1728) by a Danish navigator with Russian roots. His name was Vitus Bering. In honor of famous geographer the strait is named. Previously, its width changed very much - over time, large areas of land appeared. Now the Bering Strait has more or less constant dimensions. Yes, most short distance between the continental Russian Federation and the United States of America - approximately eighty-six kilometers. Within it body of water there are two land areas - Ratmanov Island and one more - Kruzenshtern. The first one is larger. It belongs to Russia, and the second is smaller, and it is the property of the United States.

Between these islands there is a very important strip - the date line. Since the western and eastern hemispheres border here, time zones connect at this place, and the time differs by almost a day. When sailing from one island of the Bering Strait to another, one should not turn the clock back or forward, but turn the sheets of the calendar over. So, if you cross this line, moving from Russia to America, then you save a whole day, and if you go back, then, on the contrary, you lose. The International Date Line runs from the North Pole through the Bering Strait and heads further south to the Antarctic Pole across the Pacific Ocean, sometimes separating very close islands.

Projects to connect two continents

Since the end of the nineteenth century, ideas began to be expressed about how to build a huge bridge across the Bering Strait and thereby connect America with Russia. Since then it has been developed a large number of bridge projects, many proposals were made, dozens of international meetings and conferences were held. Railway tunnels were designed through the Bering Strait, car roads. Proposals were discussed, postponed and rejected. To date, the project has not been fully developed. The difficulties of its implementation in Russia are associated with the insufficient development of railways in the north of the country. And in order to build a bridge or a tunnel across the strait, it is necessary to additionally lay more than three thousand kilometers of rails on the territory of the country to provide access to it.

For some time at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the question of connecting America with Russia was abandoned. However, it was raised again in 2010 due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland, which greatly hampered air travel between continents. This a natural phenomenon reminded that railway transport practically independent of such unfavorable situations. The issues of the project, financing and (especially) the construction of the bridge have not yet been resolved, however, it is known that this will be a complex highway, including railway for passenger and freight trains, automobile, massive power lines and communications. The road will pass through the Bering Strait, connecting