STOVEPIPE

This chronicle provides postive evidence that the item extending from the tip of Bering Island (Russia) was emplaced by military personel as a result of logistical engineering.  If you look at the device in-use from the sea looking toward the shore, you can see that it's purpose is to extend the boom out to deeper water where connection can be made with an ocean-going tanker ship for off-loading of petroleum:

As you can see in the background of the above photo, this device was established as a fixed-installation.  Reference the cylindrical storage tanks.  Also, you can estimate by the length of the shore-secured part of the stovepipe that the ship can be farther from shore (given the draft-depth of the tanker ship during changes in the tide).

Now study this screen snapshot taken from Google Earth - showing the outer-most end of the shore-secured section where you can see the shallow water near the coastline and deeper water beyond where the tanker ship can maneuver to offload:

If you were standing on Bering Island looking out at a tanker ship anchored off-shore and connected to the device in the lower lefthand corner of the above snapshot - perhaps this is what you would see:

In reality, this snapshot was made near the coastline of Viet Nam when Allied forces were at war with North Viet Nam.  What you can see in the foreground of the above snapshot are sandbagged berms that prevent the rubberized-fabric fuel storage bladders from moving and to encompass accidental fuel spillage.  You can see these berms on Bering Island in the following screen snapshot taken from Google Earth:

Four are visible in direct view of the rear of the device (left-center) of the snapshot, and three more can be seen near the bottom right edge to the left of the Google logo.  It is my guess that this set up sees a lot of usage during scientific expedition involving helicopters and ground vehicles.  Russians use helicopters because they require no fixed runway facilities.  Perhaps the three bermed revetments secure fuel bladders for the storage of MOGAS while the four more-permanent ones probably contain bladders of AVGAS.

I would like to extend to anyone reading this cyber chronicle the opportunity to read the very-interesting account at these two URLs:

http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/basedev/chapter9.htm

http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/logistic/chapter3.htm

And the next time you are aboard your Google Earth magic carpet, and you happen upon Bering Island and see the following notice.....

not only will you know what the device is - but you will also know what it does.