Mississippi is one of the greatest rivers of our planet. By the famous writer Mark Twain, she was compared to the first liar in the world. This name Mississippi received because of the wayward character of the current.
Near the mouth, on the territory of the lower reaches, the river meanders as it wants, along the plain. In the spring, it can adjust its length either up or down, changing the course. At the same time, it is difficult for those people who dared to settle on its volatile shores. The very name of the Mississippi in Indian translation means "great river."
Where does it flow
Mississippi is a river that is North America's main communications waterway. It originates in the state of Minnesota. The source of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca, located at an altitude of 1575 m above sea level. The river is divided into two sections. From its source to the confluence of the Ohio River, Upper Mississippi is located. Next is the territory of Lower Mississippi.
After the beautiful waterfall of St. Antonio, the river becomes navigable. In this zone, the relief of the channel changes to plain. The Mississippi is a river that carries its waters slowly in the lower reaches. It literally spills over a wide plain. The direction of the Mississippi River is from north to south. It is clearly visible on the political map of the United States. The river flows through ten states and serves as a natural boundary for many of them. If we take into account the main tributary of the Mississippi - Missouri, the basin of the great river covers thirty-one states of America. On the map, the blue thread of the water surface is bounded by the Rocky Mountains in the west, the Appalachians in the east and the Canadian border in the north. By its length, this river system occupies the fourth place on our planet.
The mouth of the great aquatic artery
Where does the Mississippi River flow? To the Gulf of Mexico. The mouth of the Mississippi River is located a little south (one hundred and sixty kilometers) of New Orleans.
At the confluence of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, the river forms a fairly large delta, the territory of which is located on an area of 31, 860 square kilometers. The width of this zone is 300 km. Most of the delta is an area occupied by lakes and swamps. Navigation at the confluence of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico is extremely difficult.
The movement of river transport is hampered by numerous sandbanks and frequent destructive floods. Partially solve this problem allowed the construction of dams. However, this led to the fact that the river stopped supplying the adjoining territories with silt important for fertility and slowed down the growth rate of the delta, which has been preserved throughout its history.
Tributaries
The largest river flowing into the Mississippi is Missouri. Its source is in the place where the confluence of the three rivers takes place. One of them is Jefferson.
North America has the longest water system on its territory. It is formed by the Mississippi, the Missouri River, as well as Jefferson. The beds of these water arteries have a sufficiently large length. The distance from the source of the Jefferson River to the mouth of the great Mississippi is six thousand three hundred kilometers. Missouri is the right tributary of North America's longest waterway.
The second largest river flowing into the Mississippi is Arkansas. She is her right tributary. The deepest river that flows into the Mississippi is Ohio (it is its left tributary).
On the map of America, you can find other large rivers that flow into the Mississippi. So, its right tributaries are the Red River and Minnesota, and the left are Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin.
Water regime and characteristic of the pool
Mississippi is a river whose length is three thousand nine hundred and fifty kilometers. If this value is calculated from the sources of Missouri, then the value will be increased to 6420 km. The Mississippi basin is three thousand two hundred and sixty-eight square kilometers. This value is equal to forty percent of the entire US area (excluding Alaska). The average water discharge in the Mississippi is twelve thousand seven hundred and forty-three cubic meters per second. In its lower reaches, a great river never freezes. In the upper one, for three to four months, freezing lasts for a year.
Channel characteristics
In the section of its upper course, the great river of America flows through small lakes. A description of the Mississippi River indicates the presence of rapids as well as rocky rifts. The most significant of them are located at the St. Antoni Falls, near the city of Minneapolis. There are settlements in Kyokak and Davenport.
The riverbed is locked from Minneapolis to the mouth of the Missouri. It built more than twenty dams.
The characteristics of the Mississippi River in its middle section are somewhat different. Here the waters pass mainly along one channel, the width of which is ten to fifteen meters. In the middle section, steep slopes approach river waters.
After the Missouri flows into the channel, muddy brown muddy water flows. For a hundred and fifty-one hundred and eighty kilometers, this stream is adjacent to the relatively clear waters of the Mississippi.
The lower section of the river majestically carries its waters over a wide plain, the soils of which are composed of alluvial deposits. The course in these places is winding. It has a large number of sleeves and old women. Where the Mississippi River calmly carries its waters over a vast plain, a whole maze of ducts forms. There are many floodplain bogs and old lake, which during floods flood the territory nearby.
Almost the entire section of the channel has a natural bordering with coastal shafts. To protect against floods, they are strengthened by a system consisting of artificial dams with a total length of over four thousand kilometers. A river flows between the shafts. In places, the upper surface of the water exceeds the surface level of the floodplain.
A little lower than the city of Baton Rouge has its origin a lobed river delta. It occupies a fairly large area (almost 32 thousand square kilometers).
The Mississippi bed at the end of the delta is branched into six short sleeves thirty to forty kilometers long. They flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The main of these sleeves is called South West Pass. This is the southwestern branch of the Mississippi, which allows over thirty percent of the total flow to the bay.
During the flood period, there is a sharp increase in water levels. Partially, they are discharged into Lake Ponchartren, which is located near New Orleans. The remainder falls into the Alchafalaya River, which flows parallel to the Mississippi and also flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Food
Most of the water the river receives from precipitation and from melting snow. It is noteworthy that at the same time, the right tributaries contribute a lot to the nutrition of the Mississippi. These rivers are formed as a result of melting snow on the Rocky Mountains. The right tributaries feed the Mississippi, usually with storm and rainwater.
Floods
The nature of the water regime of the river is associated with spring-summer floods. Rainfall also makes its contribution. Floods sometimes take on simply disastrous proportions. This happens when snowmelt in the Missouri and Mississippi basins coincides in time with the rain flows occurring in the Ohio Basin.
In such cases, severe floods are observed in the lower and middle reaches of the great river. During such floods, the water discharge in the channel increases to fifty to eighty thousand cubic meters per second. The hydraulic structures built in the lower reaches are not able to completely protect the fields and settlements from floods.
Water artery
The Mississippi is a convenient route to central North America from the Gulf of Mexico. The Great River is the most important transport artery of the United States and connects the developed agricultural and industrial regions of the country.
As a waterway, the Mississippi became less significant during the period of intense competition from the railways in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, with the development of the Great Lakes region, the importance of the Mississippi has increased again.
Currently, the total length of the shipping lanes is twenty-five thousand kilometers. In the lower part of the Mississippi, cargo turnover during the year reaches seven million tons. The main cargoes are chemicals and building materials, petroleum products and coal.
