Who first discovered the Bering Strait. Why is the Bering Strait so named?
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 the natural border of 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 discover the 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 other geographical objects. 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.
/ / 65.97250; -168.79167(G) (I)Coordinates : 065°58′21″ s. sh. 168°47′30″ W d. / 65.97250° N sh. 168.79167° W d./ 65.97250; -168.79167(G) (I)
in the middle Bering Strait lie the Diomede Islands: Ratmanov Island - larger and located to the west, and Kruzenshtern Island. According to the agreement on the sale of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands (1867), the border between Russia and the United States runs in the middle between the islands. Thus, Ratmanov Island belongs to Russia, and Kruzenshtern Island belongs to the United States. The distance between the islands is just under 4 km. The border of time zones and the International Date Line also pass there. On the island of Ratmanov there is a Russian border outpost - the easternmost in Russia. On Kruzenshtern Island, in addition to the American border guards, there are locals, there is a regular air service from the city of Nome.
Tunnel across the strait
Periodically, from the end of the 19th century to the present day, at the level of specialists, and sometimes even governments (mainly Russia and the USA), the feasibility and possibilities of building a tunnel or bridge across the Bering Strait to connect Chukotka with Alaska are discussed, but for various reasons, both technical and economic nature, none of the ideas has yet been brought to implementation.
Prehistoric settlement of America
In the anthropology of the Bering Strait period ca. 10 thousand years ago and earlier, is considered as the Bering Isthmus, along which people - the Paleo-Indians - settled America, becoming the Indians known to us.
Legal status
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Notes
Literature
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
An excerpt characterizing the Bering Strait
He closed his eyes again. His sobs stopped. He made a sign with his hand to his eyes; and Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away his tears.Then he opened his eyes and said something that no one could understand for a long time and, finally, he understood and conveyed only Tikhon. Princess Mary was looking for the meaning of his words in the mood in which he spoke a minute before. Now she thought that he was talking about Russia, then about Prince Andrei, then about her, about her grandson, then about his death. And because of this, she could not guess his words.
“Put on your white dress, I love it,” he said.
Understanding these words, Princess Marya sobbed even louder, and the doctor, taking her by the arm, led her out of the room to the terrace, persuading her to calm down and make preparations for her departure. After Princess Mary left the prince, he again spoke about his son, about the war, about the sovereign, twitched his eyebrows angrily, began to raise a hoarse voice, and with him came the second and last blow.
Princess Mary stopped on the terrace. The day cleared up, it was sunny and hot. She could understand nothing, think of nothing, and feel nothing, except for her passionate love for her father, a love which, it seemed to her, she had not known until that moment. She ran out into the garden and, sobbing, ran down to the pond along the young linden paths planted by Prince Andrei.
“Yes… I… I… I.” I wished for his death. Yes, I wanted it to end soon... I wanted to calm down... But what will happen to me? Why do I need peace of mind when he is gone, ”Princess Marya muttered aloud, walking quickly through the garden and pressing her hands on her chest, from which sobs frantically burst out. Walking around the circle in the garden, which led her back to the house, she saw m lle Bourienne (who remained in Bogucharovo and did not want to leave) and an unfamiliar man walking towards her. It was the leader of the district, who himself came to the princess in order to present to her the need for an early departure. Princess Mary listened and did not understand him; she led him into the house, offered him breakfast, and sat down with him. Then, apologizing to the leader, she went to the door of the old prince. The doctor, with an alarmed face, came out to her and said that it was impossible.
- Go, princess, go, go!
Princess Marya went back into the garden and under the hill by the pond, in a place where no one could see, sat down on the grass. She did not know how long she had been there. Someone's running female steps along the path made her wake up. She got up and saw that Dunyasha, her maid, obviously running after her, suddenly, as if frightened by the sight of her young lady, stopped.
“Please, princess ... prince ...” Dunyasha said in a broken voice.
“Now, I’m going, I’m going,” the princess began hastily, not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she had to say, and, trying not to see Dunyasha, she ran to the house.
“Princess, the will of God is being done, you must be ready for anything,” said the leader, meeting her at the front door.
- Leave me. It is not true! she yelled angrily at him. The doctor wanted to stop her. She pushed him away and ran to the door. “And why are these people with frightened faces stopping me? I don't need anyone! And what are they doing here? She opened the door, and the bright daylight in that previously dim room terrified her. There were women and a nurse in the room. They all moved away from the bed, making way for her. He lay still on the bed; but the stern look of his calm face stopped Princess Marya on the threshold of the room.
"No, he's not dead, it can't be! - Princess Mary said to herself, went up to him and, overcoming the horror that seized her, pressed her lips to his cheek. But she immediately pulled away from him. Instantly, all the strength of tenderness for him, which she felt in herself, disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of horror for what was before her. “No, he is no more! He is not there, but there is right there, in the same place where he was, something alien and hostile, some kind of terrible, terrifying and repulsive secret ... - And, covering her face with her hands, Princess Marya fell into the hands of the doctor, who supported her.
In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor, the women washed what he was, tied a handkerchief around his head so that his open mouth would not stiffen, and tied his diverging legs with another handkerchief. Then they put on a uniform with medals and laid a small shriveled body on the table. God knows who and when took care of this, but everything became as if by itself. By nightfall, candles burned around the coffin, there was a cover on the coffin, juniper was strewn on the floor, a printed prayer was placed under the dead, shrunken head, and a deacon sat in the corner, reading a psalter.
As horses shied away, crowded and snorted over a dead horse, so in the living room around the coffin crowded people of strangers and their own - the leader, and the headman, and the women, and all with fixed, frightened eyes, crossed themselves and bowed, and kissed the cold and stiff hand of the old prince.
Bogucharovo was always, before Prince Andrei settled in it, a private estate, and the men of Bogucharov had a completely different character from those of Lysogorsk. They differed from them in speech, clothing, and customs. They were called steppes. The old prince praised them for their endurance in their work when they came to help clean up the Bald Mountains or dig ponds and ditches, but did not like them for their savagery.
The last stay in Bogucharovo of Prince Andrei, with his innovations - hospitals, schools and easier dues - did not soften their morals, but, on the contrary, strengthened in them those character traits that the old prince called savagery. Some kind of obscure talk always went between them, either about listing them all as Cossacks, or about a new faith to which they would be converted, then about some kind of royal lists, then about an oath to Pavel Petrovich in 1797 (about which they said that then even the will came out, but the gentlemen took it away), then about Peter Feodorovich, who will reign in seven years, under whom everything will be free and it will be so simple that nothing will happen. Rumors about the war in Bonaparte and his invasion combined for them with the same vague ideas about the Antichrist, the end of the world and pure will.
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 the American continent by a 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 the 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. So, the shortest distance between the continental Russian Federation and the United States of America, about eighty-six kilometers. Within its body of water there are two land areas - Ratmanov Island and another one - 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 that time, a large number of bridge projects have been developed, many proposals have been made, dozens of international meetings and conferences have been 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 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
It happened in 1728 during the First Kamchatka Expedition led by the famous navigator Vitu catfish Bering. He sailed in a different way than Semyon Dezhnev 100 years earlier. Perhaps the number of open lands gave the name of the strait in honor of Bering. But, in order...
Bering Vitus Jonassen was born in 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens, graduated from the cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, was admitted to the Baltic Fleet in the same year with the rank of second lieutenant, and in 1707 was promoted to lieutenant. In 1710 he was transferred to the Azov fleet, promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1712 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, in 1715 he was promoted to captain of the 4th rank.
First Kamchatka expedition
Being inquisitive by nature and, like an enlightened monarch, concerned about the benefits for the country, the first Russian emperor was keenly interested in travel descriptions. The king and his advisers knew about the existence of Anian - that was the name of the strait between Asia and America at that time - and expected to use it for practical purposes.
At the end of 1724, Peter I said: “... something that I had been thinking about for a long time and that other things interfered with, that is, about the road across the Arctic Sea to China and India ... Will we not be happier in exploring such a path than the Dutch and the British? ... "
and, without delay, drew up an order for an expedition. The captain of the 1st rank was appointed its head, later - the captain-commander, 44-year-old Vitus Jonassen (in Russian usage - Ivan Ivanovich) Bering, who had already served in Russia for 21 years. The king handed him a secret instruction written in his own hand. The official task was to resolve the issue of "whether America came together with Asia" and the opening of the Northern Sea Route.
The first Kamchatka expedition, which initially consisted of 34 people, set off on the road from St. Petersburg on January 24, 1725. Moving through Siberia, they went to Okhotsk on horseback and on foot, on ships along the rivers. The last 500 km from the mouth of the Yudoma to Okhotsk, they dragged the heaviest loads, harnessing themselves to the sledges. Terrible frosts and famine reduced the composition of the expedition by 15 people. The advance detachment led by V. Bering arrived in Okhotsk on October 1, 1726, and the group of Lieutenant Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg, a Dane in the Russian service, who closed the expedition, got there only on January 6, 1727. To survive until the end of winter, people had to build several huts and barns.
The road through the expanses of Russia took 2 years. On this entire path, equal to a quarter of the length of the earth's equator, Lieutenant Alexei Ilyich Chirikov determined 28 astronomical points, which made it possible for the first time to reveal the true latitudinal extent of Siberia, and, consequently, the northern part of Eurasia.
As the authors of Essays on the History geographical discoveries”, V. Bering, having misunderstood the plan of the king and violating the instructions, which ordered first to go from Kamchatka to the south or east, headed north along the coast of the peninsula, and then northeast along the mainland.
“As a result,” it says further in the “Essays ...”, “more than 600 km of the northern half of east coast peninsulas, the Kamchatsky and Ozernaya peninsulas, as well as the Karaginsky Bay with the island of the same name ... The sailors also put 2500 km on the map coastline Northeast Asia. Along most of the coast they marked high mountains, and covered with snow in summer, approaching in many places directly to the sea and rising above it like a wall. In addition, they discovered the Gulf of the Cross (not knowing that it had already been discovered by K. Ivanov), the Bay of Providence and the island of St. Lawrence.
However, the desired part of the land was still not shown. V. Bering, not seeing either the American coast or the turn to the west of the Chukchi coast, ordered A. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg to state in writing their opinions on whether the presence of a strait between Asia and America can be considered proven, whether to move further north and how far . In fact, this was the opening of the strait. As a result of this "written meeting" Bering decided to go further north. On August 16, 1728, the sailors passed through the strait and ended up in the Chukchi Sea. Then Bering turned back, officially motivating his decision by the fact that everything was done according to the instructions, the coast does not extend further to the north, but “nothing came to the Chukotsky, or Eastern, corner of the earth.” After spending another winter in Nizhnekamchatsk, in the summer of 1729, Bering again made an attempt to reach the American coast, but after walking a little more than 200 km, due to strong wind and fog, he ordered to return.
The first expedition described the southern half of the eastern and a small part West Bank peninsula for more than 1000 km between the mouths of Kamchatka and Bolshoy, revealing the Kamchatka Bay and Avacha Bay. Together with Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov and midshipman Pyotr Avraamovich Chaplin, Bering compiled the final map of the voyage. Despite a number of errors, this map was much more accurate than the previous ones and was highly appreciated by D. Cook. Detailed description the first marine scientific expedition in Russia was preserved in the ship's journal, which was kept by Chirikov and Chaplin.
To be continued…
based on materials: http://ppjournal.ru/
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait is located between Eurasia and North America, making up 86 km in breadth between the extreme points of these continents (Cape Dezhnev and Cape Prince of Wales, respectively).
The strait borders in the north on the Chukchi Sea, which is part of the Northern Arctic Ocean; in the south - with the Bering Sea, which is part of Pacific Ocean. The average depth ranges from 30 to 50 meters.
Bering Strait on the world map
The geographical position of the Bering Strait and its length, which connects the Western and Eastern hemispheres, is impressive. However, no less how did the strait form and, most importantly, why is it called that? To find out, you need to look at history.
: Since the end of the 19th century, scientists have put forward proposals for the construction of a bridge across the Bering Strait or an underground tunnel to connect the Chukotka Peninsula and Alaska.
land bridge
On the site of the Bering Strait during the last stage of the ice age, a land bridge (the Bering Isthmus) was formed, which stretched for about 1600 km from north to south. This was due to the fact that during the Pleistocene ice age a large amount of water accumulated in the glaciers of the Arctic, which led to a drop in sea level and the appearance of land on the shelf. Over the course of thousands of years, the seafloor of many interglacial shallow seas has risen, including the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea in the north, and the Bering Sea in the south. After the end of the last cycle of the ice age, when the glaciers began to melt, the sea level rose and the land bridge went under water. Thus, a strait was formed at the site of the land bridge and the route from Asia to America was closed.
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historical region Beringia The grassy steppe, including the Bering Isthmus, which stretches for hundreds of kilometers to the Eurasian and North American continents, was called Beringia. During the ice age, this area did not freeze, because it was a rain shadow and the southwest winds of the Pacific Ocean lost moisture over the frozen Alaska Range.
Humans (Paleo-Indians) and animals migrated from Asia to North America through the Bering Isthmus about 25 thousand years ago and founded settlements initially in Beringia, and then populated the American continents. The modern territory of Beringia includes the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Chukchi and Kamchatka Peninsulas, as well as Alaska.
Drift ice in the Bering Strait Interesting fact: From October to July, the surface of the Bering Strait is covered with drifting ice, the average thickness of which is 1.2-1.5 m. In some areas, the ice remains all year round. The water temperature in the Bering Strait in winter is about 2-3 °C below zero, and in summer the surface water layer reaches 7 to 10 °C above zero. Winter in the region is the season of severe storms.
Islands in the Bering Strait
On the territory of the Bering Strait, which in ancient times was a land bridge, in modern geography, land is represented by islands. The Diomede Islands, located in the central part of the Bering Strait, include two rocky islands that are 4 km apart from each other: Small Diomede (Kruzenshtern Island), belonging to the United States, and Big Diomede (Ratmanov Island), which is the territory of Russia. Between the Diomede Islands, which lie in the middle of the strait, stretches the border between Russia and the United States and, in addition, the International Date Line.
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The American Fairway Island is less than 15 km southeast of the Diomede Islands. St. Lawrence Island is located in the southern part of the Bering Strait.
Strait opening
Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev discovered the Bering Strait in 1648. In 1648, the expedition of the Russian navigator and explorer Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed through the Bering Strait for the first time. Semyon Dezhnev went around the eastern tip of Asia (Cape Dezhnev), discovered the Diomede Islands, and reached the Anadyr River. Founded the Anadyr prison. However, the results of the expedition of S.I. Dezhnev did not become public. Initially, it remained unknown and the navigator's route was not used. Semyon Dezhnev is considered the discoverer of the Bering Strait. Passing it along its entire length (from north to south).
