The Mississippi River Delta Basin is defined as the land and estuarine area between the two northernmost passes of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico (figure 14).
What is the land around the Mississippi river used for?
As the nation’s second-longest river, behind only the conjoining Missouri, the Mississippi provides drinking water for millions and supports a $12.6 billion shipping industry, with 35,300 related jobs. It’s one of the greatest water highways on earth, carrying commerce and food for the world.
What surrounds the Mississippi river?
The Mississippi River runs through or along 10 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana, and is used to define portions of these states borders, with Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee , and Mississippi along the east side of the river, and Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas along its west side.
What states have land along the Mississippi river?
The river passes through or borders 10 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana .
What is the surface area of the Mississippi river?
The Mississippi River is 3782 km (2350 miles) long and averages 1.6 km (1 mile) wide, making a surface area of 6086.5 square kilometers (2,350 square miles) while Lake Superior has a 2494.5 kilometer (1550 mile) shoreline and 82,102.6 square kilometers (31,700 square miles) of surface area.
Can you swim in the Mississippi river?
There are always unknown hazards in the Mississippi river due to bacteria levels according to Stuart Schmitz, a toxicologist at the Iowa Department of Public Health. ... He said the Mississippi is safe to swim and fish in , as long as people are safe about it.
Why is the Mississippi river so low 2021?
Mississippi River experiencing low water levels thanks to lack of rain in northern Minnesota , fueled by climate change. ... Cloud, according to the National Water Dashboard from the United States Geological Survey. By the time the river reaches Prescott, Wisconsin, the levels remain much below typical years.
What is wrong with the Mississippi river?
The Mississippi River and its tributaries have been plagued by nutrient runoff , specifically excess nitrogen and phosphorous. ... All of that nitrogen and phosphorous runoff ultimately ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering rapid overgrowth of algae.
How important is the Mississippi river?
The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is also one of the world’s most important commercial waterways and one of North America’s great migration routes for both birds and fishes.
Why is the Mississippi river toxic?
The Mississippi River doesn’t have the cleanest reputation. Long treated as a drain for Midwest farms, factories and cities, the river has coursed with a nasty mix of bacteria, lead and toxic chemicals .
How does the Mississippi river affect humans?
Within recent years, human induced climate change has been affecting the river. ... This not only affects the wildlife, but the humans living near the river as well. As people creep closer to the river’s edge and make more demands on the river, the increasing flood and drought cycles are having greater human impacts.
The bottom of the river is composed of a thin layer of clay, silt, loam, and sand, which lay above a stratum of glacial outwash. The Upper Mississippi River covers approximately half of the Mississippi River’s length. About 850 miles of the river is navigable, from Minneapolis-St. Paul to the Ohio River.
What does Mississippi mean?
Definitions of Mississippi. a state in the Deep South on the gulf of Mexico ; one of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. synonyms: MS, Magnolia State. example of: American state. one of the 50 states of the United States.
What are the features of the Mississippi river?
To geographers, the lower Mississippi has long been a classic example of a meandering alluvial river; that is, the channel loops and curls extravagantly along its floodplain, leaving behind meander scars, cutoffs, oxbow lakes, and swampy backwaters .
Where is the head of the Mississippi river?
Lake Itasca is a small glacial lake, approximately 1.8 square miles (4.7 km 2 ; 1,200 acres) in area. Located in southeastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north central Minnesota , it is notable for being the headwater of the Mississippi River. The lake is in Itasca State Park.
Are there locks on the Mississippi river?
There are 29 lock and dam structures built along the upper Mississippi River, creating a “stairway of water” that allows pleasure boats, tow boats and barges to travel from St. Louis to St. Paul (or vice versa).
