Why This Is America's Most Important Sea

Tucked in the far north of the Pacific Ocean is a sea that is not only the gateway between two continents, but is also one where you can literally jump forward or back in time. It's a place that, on one hand, is a bitterly cold weather machine controlling global weather patterns around the world, while also being home to one of the largest volcanic hotspots in the entire world. From being one of the most forgotten World War II battlegrounds and invasions, to now being one of the world's most important global shipping routes. Here are 15 incredible geographic facts you never knew about the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea is a relatively small body of water located in the very far northern tip of the Pacific Ocean. But while it's fairly small itself, its notoriety goes much farther than you might expect. This is largely because of its physical location. It sits right in between the US state of Alaska to its east and Russia's far eastern region of Chukotka to the west, which means the Bering Sea sits right at the confluence of two major continents, North America and Asia respectively. In fact, at its narrowest point within the Bering Strait, and not including the Diomede Islands, the United States and Russia are separated by only 50 miles of water. Now, despite this relatively narrow gap and popular misconceptions, you cannot see mainland Russia from mainland Alaska. The gap is simply too big, and each's land is hidden by the curvature of the Earth. Despite sharing the same name, the Bering Sea changes dramatically as you move from the northeastern half to the southwestern half. You see, the northeastern part of the Bering Sea exists mostly on what we call a continental shelf, which is essentially an extension of the continents of North America and Asia respectively, the land of which would be very similar to the lands of Alaska or Chukotka were they not submerged. And at one point in history, they weren't. But as you head southwest, you'll eventually hit a cliff, One that dives deep into the depths. All told, the northeastern continental shelf region of the Bering Sea is somewhere between one foot below sea level to about 500 feet below sea level, whereas the southwestern depths almost immediately dive to 13,000 feet below sea level. Were these two features on land, they probably wouldn't be part of the same named geographic feature. Speaking of incredible depths, the Bering Sea is home to the deepest submarine canyon in the entire world. The Zemchung Canyon, which is carved into the Bering Sea's continental shelf before exiting into the abyss in the southwest, is both wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon in the state of Arizona. At a length of 99 miles, it has a vertical relief of 8,530 feet. Unfortunately, due to its depths, you can't really go take in its majesty like you can with the Grand Canyon, but that doesn't mean it's not important. Together with its cousin Bering Sea Canyons, the Navarone Canyon, Pribilof Canyon, and Bering Canyon, they create an incredible nutrient-upwelling system that draws in phytoplankton, which leads to a whole host of diverse aquatic species from crabs and octopus to whales and flounder. You've probably never been to the Bering Sea, but that doesn't mean you haven't felt its impact. Because of its unique location in the Arctic and its narrow gap between the continents of Asia and North America, the Bering Sea operates as something of a global weather machine. You see, while the Bering Sea doesn't quite freeze over entirely, and you certainly can't walk across the ice between the continents, the northern half does freeze over to a considerable extent. And when that ice breaks and fractures, it moves south into the northern Pacific Ocean. Where it melts and cools the rest of the ocean considerably. This freezing has an enormous impact on the weather systems that then head southwest towards Canada and the United States. It just goes to show that a little ice can go a long way. The Bering Sea is often thought of as an icy, bitterly cold sea in the far northern part of the world, and that is true to an extent. But the Bering Sea is also home to one of the most volcanically active parts of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Aleutian Island Arc. The Aleutian Islands of Alaska are infamously fiery, with over 40 active volcanoes, of which the last eruption occurred when Mount Shishaldin erupted from 2023 to 2024. And back in 2008, Kasatochi Volcano had a very violent eruption that blasted almost all life off its island. All of this is because the Aleutian Arc sits at the very edge of where the North American Plate is subducting under the Pacific Plate, causing an uplifting of magma in a relatively narrow band of land. Just like the Aleutian Arc, Creates a volatile, unpredictable environment where tectonic plates collide. Traveling to unfamiliar countries can quickly become volatile if you lose your connection and you have to hunt for Wi-Fi. To avoid massive roaming fees and the hassle of buying new SIM cards in every country I visit for my field geography channel, Geolex, I rely on today's sponsor. eSIM.io. eSIM.io is a global travel connectivity app that provides seamless internet access in over 200 countries. And what makes it completely stress-free is their core feature, 1SIM. You literally install the eSIM just one single time and it keeps you connected everywhere. 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While the Bering Sea is very much a water feature today, if we go back to the last glacial maximum around 26,000 to 20,000 years ago, this area wasn't underwater at all. You see, with so much of the world's water locked away in massive ice caps in both the polar north and polar south, there was simply less ocean to go around. As such, areas that are today hundreds of feet underwater were exposed as dry land. In particular, an area we call Beringia connected Chukotka to Alaska. As the theory goes, because of this land bridge, humans, mammoths, and other larger, non-flying or swimming creatures were able to make it to North America, establishing what would become the ancient ancestors to the indigenous peoples all over the Americas, from the Inuit and mound builders in the north, to the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca to the south. They were all derived from the original peoples who literally walked from Asia to the Americas. The Bering Sea today is squeezed in between the U.S. state of Alaska and the Russian Autonomous Region of Chukotka. And while the region has been claimed in some form or fashion by Russians, Americans, British, and Spanish over the centuries, not discounting the indigenous peoples as well, the name Bering actually comes from a Dane. The sea is actually named for Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator, which is interesting because Denmark never really held any claims to this region. Vitus Bering was hired by the Russian Navy in 1728 to explore the region, map it out, and prove, once and for all, whether Asia and North America were connected by land or not. Which, of course, he found that the two were not. Now all this is to say, while Vitus was Danish and was born in Denmark, he was very much Russian as well, the country he adopted and served for over 30 years. Have you ever heard of the legendary sea cow? No, I'm not talking about manatees, which are often called sea cows. There was actually a mammalian species found in the polar Arctic north called the Steller's sea cow. When Vitus Bering's crew shipwrecked in the Bering Sea in 1741, they discovered this incredibly large oceanic mammal that was also very slow moving. And during this time, a man named George Wilhelm Steller observed and recorded their movements and way of life. He noticed that they mainly ate kelp, communicated with sighs and snorting, and he believed that they were likely monogamous and highly social creatures living in small familial units. Unfortunately for the Steller's sea cow, after their discovery, fur traders and seal hunters hunted them to complete extinction. At the time of their discovery, there was likely only around 2,000 left, and by 1768, there were none. Today, the Bering Sea and the Bering Strait specifically is one of the major borders in the world. Not only does it serve as a border between the United States and Russia, but it's also the border between both North America and Asia and today and tomorrow, weirdly enough. But while this might seem like a big border today, that wasn't always the case. Prior to 1867, the US state of Alaska was controlled by Russia, but drowning in debt and unable to really exert its influence over a territory so far away, Russia opted to sell it. Specifically, they decided to sell it to the United States so that they could have a buffer between them and the growing British Empire in Canada. All told, the United States purchased the entirety of Alaska for $7.2 million, or about $200 million today, which felt like a lot of money for a distant and mostly frigid environment at the time, but one that would prove to be very lucrative decades later due to Alaska's vast reserves of oil. World War II is largely thought of as having two main arenas, Europe and East Asia. But true to its name, battles were fought nearly everywhere across the globe. Case in point, the Bering Sea's Aleutian Islands. On June 3rd, 1942, the Aleutian Islands were invaded and occupied by the Japanese Empire, specifically the islands of Attu and Kiska. Largely thought of as an attempt to divert American forces away from Midway, the United States largely allowed it to happen. Knowing that it was likely just that, a diversion. In May 1943, American forces invaded and retook Attu, and then in August of 1943, American and Canadian forces invaded Kiska with a force of over 34,000 men. But by the time they invaded, the Japanese had already left, and so this minor theater of World War II was largely forgotten, as nothing big ever really happened here. Have you ever thought about traveling through time? While it might seem like pure science fiction, and it definitely is, there's a place in the Bering Sea that lets you feel like you're traveling in time. Meet the Diomede Islands, two islands that are only 2.4 miles apart, but are split by the international date line. Little Diomede Island, also known as Yesterday Island, is owned by the United States, whereas Big Diomede Island, also known as Tomorrow Island, is owned by Russia. To cross from one to the other will send you a full 21 hours into the future or back into the past. Of course, this is merely a mirage due to how we collectively manage our time on our planet, but it's definitely the closest we'll ever get to actual time travel. The Bering Sea is globally famous for its seafood. In fact, in many cases, it's considered to be the most lucrative fishery in the entire world. The Bering Sea today produces over half the entire United States seafood, much of which is Alaska Pollock, perhaps better known as the fish stick. But most importantly, it's known for its crab catch. While crab has been a very profitable endeavor for crabbers for generations, more recently it became famous for another reason entirely, deadliest catch. The long-running documentary series follows crabbing vessels through the rough and tumble waters of the Bering Sea, shining an unbelievable spotlight on a region of the world most of us will never see for ourselves. Speaking of the Bering Sea's lucrative fisheries and natural resources, most of it is well claimed by both Russia and the United States. Because of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, every country in the world that has a coastline is given a 200 nautical mile buffer from its shores where they have the exclusive rights to the natural resources. Which means, most of the Bering Sea is exclusively the property of the United States, mostly Mostly because of the Aleutian Islands. Russia, of course, gets another large chunk in the west, but there is one part of the Bering Sea that neither have any claim over. This is the famous Bering Sea Donut Hole. Because it falls beyond the 200 nautical mile buffer of both countries, neither can keep the other or any other country from fishing and harvesting resources in that part of the sea. It's considered to be international waters. Even though they're separated by 50 miles of open ocean, the indigenous peoples of both Alaska and Chukotka are very nearly the same people. The Yupik and the Inupiat peoples of Alaska and the Chukchi peoples of Russia share a very similar language and culture based on and around the Arctic and hunting in the sea. And this all makes a lot of sense when you realize that up until about 100 years ago, these people really weren't all that separate. Sailing across the Bering Strait was never easy, but people from both cultures could move from one side to the other with no border checkpoint, or really anything other than the sea stopping them. Today, it's not easy at all to move across the international border. Doing so is against the laws of both countries, and any crossing would require first going through each respective country's border and customs agents. Which means, despite their relative closeness today, they are more separated now than they really have ever been in the past. One big side effect of global climate change is that the once legendary sheet of ice that essentially blocked passage through the Bering Strait and up and around the northern parts of North America and Asia is now thawing, which means the northern edge of the Bering Sea is becoming a highly contested global shipping checkpoint. Being able to sail up through the Bering Strait and around the North Pole allows goods to be shipped from East Asia to Europe Much faster than they could prior to global climate change. Which might seem a bit odd if you only ever look at a flat map of the world. But when you remember that the Earth is a sphere, you'll see that Europe is much closer to Alaska and the Bering Sea than you might first realize. The Bering Sea is an isolated, cold, and very distant part of the world. Which makes it all the more interesting that, in spite of all these facts, it's become such a globally well-known and important geographic region. Just be sure to pack a jacket. If you ever decide to visit. Big news, I'm launching a brand new channel here on YouTube called Bite-Sized. I cover so much geography on Geography by Jeff and Geolex, but there's one thing missing, amazing geographic stories. That's why I'm launching Bite-Sized. Every week, our mascot will take you on a mind-blowing journey. We're covering everything from Pacific Vikings reclaiming their island, to the forgotten Chinese Titanic survivors, to crossing Australia's legendary Nullarbor. So head over to the Bite-Sized YouTube channel and subscribe. New episodes launch every Monday. I hope you enjoyed learning all about the Bering Sea. Thanks for watching, see you next time.