The largest of the Near Islands are Attu and Agattu, which shelter a few rocks in the channel between them.

[citation needed] About 20 miles (30 km) to the east-southeast from Shemya are small rocky reefs known as the Ingenstrem Rocks.

[citation needed] On July 17, 2017, a major earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.7 struck the Aleutian arc, with an epicenter west of Attu.

The earthquake produced a measurable tsunami that was detected at tide gauges across the Pacific ocean; a tide gauge located at Shemya, Alaska measured a tsunami height of 10 cm (3.9 in).

During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the Near Islands in 1942, being the first foreign military to occupy American soil since the War of 1812.