Bering Strait - Definition and Overview

Satellite photo of the Bering Strait

Bering Strait is also a country music band

The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, the eastmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of the American continent, about 85 km in width, with a depth of 30–50 m. The strait connects the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) in the north with the Bering Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) in the south. It is named for Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer who crossed the strait in 1728.

The Diomede Islands lie directly in the middle of the Bering Strait.

Suggestions have been made for the construction of a bridge spanning the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, dubbed by some the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, and, alternatively, for a connecting tunnel underneath the strait.

During the ice ages, the area of the strait was a land bridge known as the Bering land bridge.