The Mississippi River Essay, Research Paper

The Mississippi River The Mississippi River, 3,779 kilometer ( 2,348 myocardial infarction ) long, is the 2nd longest river, after the Missouri, in the United States. Its triangular drainage country, covering approximately 40 % of the state and including all or portion of 31 provinces, is about 3,250,000 sq kilometer ( 1,250,000 sq myocardial infarction ) , the 3rd largest in the universe. The Mississippi rises in Minnesota and so flows South, following the boundaries between the provinces of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana on the West, and Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the E. The river, whose name means & # 8220 ; male parent of Waterss & # 8221 ; in the Algonkian linguistic communication, has long been an of import transit arteria of North America. Course of the River Rising at an lift of 446 m ( 1,463 foot ) in Lake Itasca, Minn. , the Mississippi flows through several glacial lakes to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, where it passes over a series of rapids and is joined by the Minnesota River. After this meeting, the Mississippi is fringed by 60-90-m-high ( 200-300-ft ) bluffs on both sides. Between Minneapolis and Saint Louis, Mo. , the most of import feeders are the Illinois, Chippewa, Black, Wisconsin, Saint Croix, Iowa, Des Moines, and Rock rivers, some of which drain the state & # 8217 ; s most fertile agricultural countries. The Missouri river, run outing the

Great Plains to the West, joins the Mississippi at Saint Louis. It is the longest tributary, and constitutes more than 40 % of the Mississippi system drainage country, while supplying approximately 20 % of the entire discharge. At Cairo, Ill. , the Mississippi is joined from the E by the Ohio river.

South of Cairo the Mississippi enters a broad ( 64-113 km/40-70 myocardial infarction ) , low vale that was one time an embayment of the Gulf of Mexico. Sediment has filled this country, and through the centuries the river has extended its oral cavity to the present location 966 kilometer ( 600 myocardial infarction ) downstream. This lower portion of the Mississippi & # 8217 ; s class, characterized by geographers as a typical illustration of an & # 8220 ; old-age & # 8221 ; river, is contained within natural levees formed by flood-deposited deposits. Beyond the levees lie low flood plains frequently at a lower lift than the river itself. Another characteristic of the river is its meandering. The channel path from Cairo to New Orleans is about three times every bit long as the vale. Major feeders in the lower subdivision are the Arkansas, Red, and White rivers, all fluxing from the West. The Mississippi enters the Gulf of Mexico about 160 kilometers ( 100 myocardial infarction ) downstream from New Orleans, through a 26,150-sq kilometer ( 10,100-sq myocardial infarction ) delta. Because about 550 million metric dozenss ( 500 million U.S. dozenss ) of deposit are deposited yearly, the delta extends about 91 m ( 300 foot ) each twelvemonth.