Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. The date line helps divide the world into 24 time zones. Crossing the date line either adds 24 hours or subtracts 24 hours from a traveler's day.
Photograph by Jodi Cobb. Bering Strait. International Date Line. East of this line is one day earlier than west. North Pole. South Pole. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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Ben Davis January 26, Where is the international date line located on a map? What country is the International Date Line on? Where does the equator and international date line meet?
What is 0 lat 0 long called? Is Hawaii on the international date line? Is Hawaii across the international date line? Which country moved the international date line in ? This is also called the de facto line since it is based on national laws and does not fall under the jurisdiction of international laws.
Whereas the de jure line is the Nautical Date Line, which is constructed by an international agreement. It differs from the International Date Line. It recommends all ships, both military and civilian to adopt hourly Standard Time Zones in the high seas.
It follows the degree meridian unless interrupted by the territorial waters, in which case, they are expected to adapt to the standard time of the country. From North to South, the first deviation from the degree longitude is to pass to the east of Wrangel Island and Chukchi Peninsula , the easternmost part of Russian Siberia.
Following this, it passes through the Bering Strait, and then bends west of the degree longitude, passing west of St. Lawrence Island and St. Matthew Island. The IDL crosses between the U. Since its inception, the IDL has undergone several major deviations, and it now swerves, zig-zags and jogs in a seemingly arbitrary pattern around prominent landmasses and certain Pacific islands.
Most of these deviations are the result of practical considerations, such as to avoid splitting a country into two time zones, or for political and economic reasons.
Although the islands are only separated by the narrowest of margins — just 2 miles 3. It then tracks back, following the degree meridian south again for several thousand miles, passing west of the Hawaiian Islands and east of the independent nation of the Marshall Islands, until reaching the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. This deviation reaches nearly as far east as the degree meridian and forms a very large and noticeable hammerhead-looking configuration.
Kiribati, which received its independence from the United Kingdom in , is a group of 33 mostly uninhabited islands and atolls that span a vast area encompassing no less than 1.
This caused considerable political and economic hardships as the nation tried to conduct normal everyday business with one half of its nation a day ahead and the other a day behind. In , Kiribati decided it had had enough of this arrangement, and seeking greater economic ties with Australia and New Zealand, extended the IDL eastward to encompass the nation's far-flung eastern islands, thus creating the odd configuration. Shifting the date line is a relatively easy matter, the BBC reported.
The country can decide for itself. It then swerves back sharply toward the degree meridian, but does not follow the meridian's exact path. Instead, it stays parallel to the meridian, keeping to the east of the line so that Tonga, the Kermadec Islands and New Zealand are all east of the IDL. It follows this path until reaching Antarctica, which has multiple time zones. The IDL is not drawn into Antarctica on most maps. In essence, it is a more sophisticated version of GMT because it is still based on the zero degrees of latitude that passes through Greenwich but relies on atomic clocks.
These devices, invented in the s, are incredibly accurate and are based solely on Earth's rotation. The clocks take into account slight variations in the Earth's rotation rate that can cause timekeeping to vary.
This article has been updated from a previous version written by Dan Helm in Tom Garlinghouse is a journalist specializing in general science stories.
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