Mississippi (river): description, characteristics and tributaries of one of the greatest rivers in the world

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Mississippi is one of the greatest rivers of our planet. The famous writer Mark Twain compared her to the first liar in the world. The Mississippi got its name because of the wayward nature of the current.

Near the very mouth, on the territory of the lower reaches, the river meanders as it pleases, across 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 changeable shores. The very name Mississippi is translated from the Indian means "great river".

Where it leaks

Mississippi - the river, which is the main communication water artery of North America. 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 its confluence with the Ohio River lies the Upper Mississippi. Next - the territory of the Lower Mississippi.

After the beautiful waterfall of St. Antonio, the river becomes navigable. In this zone, the relief of the channel changesto the flat. The Mississippi is a river that carries its waters slowly in its 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 border for many of them. If we take into account the main tributary of the Mississippi - the Missouri, then the basin of the great river covers thirty-one states of America. On the map, the blue strand of water is bounded by the Rocky Mountains to the west, the Appalachians to the east, and the Canadian border to the north. This river system is the fourth longest on our planet.

Mouth of the great waterway

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 with 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 with the Gulf of Mexico is extremely difficult.

River traffic 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 ceased to supply the adjacent territories with silt, important for fertility, and reduced the growth rate of the delta, whichpreserved throughout the history of its existence.

Tributaries

The largest river flowing into the Mississippi is the Missouri. Its source is located at the confluence of three rivers. One of them is Jefferson.

North America is the owner of the longest water system in its territory. It is formed by the Mississippi, the Missouri River, and the Jefferson. The channels of these water arteries are quite long. The distance from the headwaters of the Jefferson River to the mouth of the great Mississippi is six thousand three hundred kilometers. The Missouri is the right tributary of North America's longest waterway.

The second largest river flowing into the Mississippi is the Arkansas. It is its right tributary. The most full-flowing river that flows into the Mississippi is the Ohio (it is its left tributary).

On the map of America, you can find other major rivers that flow into the Mississippi. So, its right tributaries are the Red River and Minnesota, and the left ones are Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin.

Water regime and characteristics of the basin

Mississippi is a river whose length is three thousand nine hundred and fifty kilometers. If this value is calculated from the sources of the Missouri, then the value will be increased to 6420 km. The area of 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 flow in Mississippi is twelve thousand seven hundred and forty-three cubic meters per second. In its downstreamthe great river never freezes. In the upper one, freezing lasts for three to four months during the year.

Characteristics of the channel

On its upper reaches, America's great river flows through small lakes. The 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. Anthony Falls, near the city of Minneapolis. The settlements of Kiokak and Davenport also have them.

The river bed in the section from Minneapolis to the very mouth of the Missouri is locked. More than twenty dams have been built on it.

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 the river waters.

After the confluence of the Missouri, muddy brown water flows into the channel. For one hundred and fifty to 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 soil of which is composed of alluvial deposits. The riverbed in these places is winding. It has a large number of sleeves and old women. Where the Mississippi River calmly carries its waters across a vast plain, a whole labyrinth of channels is formed. There are many floodplain swamps and oxbow lakes, which flood the adjacent territory during floods.

Practically the entire section of the channel has a natural border with coastal ridges. Forflood protection, they are strengthened by a system consisting of artificial dams with a total length of over four thousand kilometers. The river flows between the ramparts. In some places, the upper surface of the water exceeds the level of the floodplain.

Slightly below the city of Baton Rouge, a lobed river delta originates. 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 arms thirty to forty kilometers long. They flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The main of these arms is called the South West Pass. This is the southwestern branch of the Mississippi, which lets over thirty percent of the total flow into the bay.

During the flood period, there is a sharp rise in the water level. Partially, they are dumped into Lake Pontchartrain, which is located near New Orleans. The rest ends up in the Alchafalaya River, which runs parallel to the Mississippi and also empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Food

Most of the water the river receives from precipitation and snowmelt. It is noteworthy that at the same time, right tributaries make a great contribution to the supply of the Mississippi. These rivers are formed as a result of the melting of snows located on the Rocky Mountains. The right tributaries feed the Mississippi, as a rule, with storm and rain water.

Floods

The nature of the water regime of the river is associated with spring and summer floods. Heavy rainfall also contributes. Floods sometimes acquire simply catastrophic proportions. It happens inwhen snowmelt in the Missouri and Mississippi basins coincides with rainfall 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 flow of water 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 fully protect fields and settlements from floods.

Water artery

Mississippi is a convenient route to the central regions of 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 important during a period of intense railroad competition 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 shipping routes is twenty-five thousand kilometers. In the lower part of the Mississippi, the turnover during the year reaches seven million tons. The main cargoes are chemicals and construction materials, oil products and coal.

This is interesting

Mississippi is associated with Mark Twain in fiction. He described the journey along the river in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Mississippi is consideredthe cradle of jazz. It was in New Orleans, located on its banks, that the famous jazzman was born, whose name is Louis Armstrong.

The nineteenth was the golden age for the river. Numerous river steamers sailed the Mississippi during this period. An old tradition is currently being revived. However, steamships today are usually traveled for tourism purposes.