Geography
The granite mass that is now Fairway Rock, like the larger nearby Diomede Islands, is the remnant of an earlier era of glaciation.
Fairway Rock is situated 12 mi (19 km) SSE of Little Diomede Island and 20 mi (32 km) W of Cape Prince of Wales, at 65°37′N 168°44′W / 65.617°N 168.733°W / 65.617; -168.733. The island is variously reported as from 300 m to 1.5 km in length. Rising steeply from the surrounding waters to 534 feet (163 m) above sea level, Fairway Rock can be easily seen from the mainland coast of Alaska at Cape Prince of Wales. Because of its steep cliffs, it poses no additional maritime hazard. The Bering Strait around Fairway Rock is relatively shallow — about 50 m in depth — and oceanographic transects show the island to lie near a current velocity minimum for the strait. Ocean currents north of Fairway Rock are occasionally studied as an example of a real-world system where a Von Kármán vortex street is generated.
Politically, Fairway Rock is part of the U.S. state of Alaska and lies inside Alaska's Nome Census Area and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Wildlife Conservation Unit 22E. It is conveyed to Inalik Native Corporation. Fairway Rock appears on USGS topographic maps in the Teller Quadrangle.
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