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

Mississippi is one of the greatest rivers of our planet. Famous writer Mark Twain, she was compared to the first fraud in the world. This name Mississippi received because of the wayward nature of the current.

Near the mouth, in the lower reaches, the river winds as it pleases, across the plain. In the spring period, it can correct its length either in a large or a smaller direction, changing the channel. It is difficult at the same time for those people who dared to settle on its volatile shores. The very name of Mississippi in translation from the Indian means "great river".

Where is it

Mississippi is a river that is the main communication waterway of North America. It starts in Minnesota. The source of 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 is the Upper Mississippi. Further - 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 a flat one. Mississippi - a river that in the lower reaches carries its water slowly. 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 you take into account the main inflow of the Mississippi-Missouri, then the basin of the great river covers thirty-one states of America. On the map, the blue thread of the water surface is confined to the Rocky Mountains to the west, the Appalachians to the east and the Canadian border to the north. By its length, this river system occupies the fourth place on our planet.

The mouth of the great water artery

Where does the Mississippi River fall? In the Gulf of Mexico. The mouth of the Mississippi River is located slightly to the south (one hundred and sixty kilometers) of New Orleans.

At the confluence of the Mississippi in 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 a terrain occupied by lakes and marshes. Shipping at the confluence of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico is extremely complicated.
The movement of river transport is hampered by numerous sand banks and frequent devastating floods. Partly to solve this problem allowed the construction of dams. However, this led to the fact that the river ceased supplying the territories adjacent to it important for the fertility of silt and reduced the growth rate of the delta, which persisted throughout the history of its existence.

Tributaries

The largest river that flows into Mississippi is Missouri. Its source is in the place where the three rivers merge. One of them is Jefferson.

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

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

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

Water regime and the characteristics of the basin

Mississippi is a river, the length of which is three thousand nine hundred and fifty kilometers. If this value is calculated from the sources of Missouri, the value will be increased to 6420 km. The Mississippi basin area is three thousand two hundred sixty-eight square kilometers. This value is equal to forty per cent of the total area of the USA (excluding Alaska). On average, the water flow in the Mississippi is equal to twelve thousand seven hundred forty-three cubic meters per second. In its lower reaches the great river never freezes. In the upper for three to four months throughout the year, there is a freeze-out.

Characteristics of the channel

On the site of its upper course, the great river of America flows through small lakes. Description of the Mississippi River indicates the presence of rapids, as well as rocky rifts. The most significant of them are located near the waterfall of St. Anthony, near the city of Minneapolis. They are also in the settlements of Kiokak and Davenport.

The riverbed in the area from Minneapolis to the mouth of the Missouri is locked. There are more than twenty dams 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 Missouri, muddy water of muddy-brown color is poured into the channel. For a hundred and fifty-one hundred and eighty kilometers, this stream is adjacent to the relatively clean waters of the Mississippi.

The lower part of the river majestically carries its waters along a wide plain, the soil of which is composed of alluvial deposits. The riverbed in these places is meandering. It has a lot of sleeves and old men. Where the Mississippi River calmly carries its waters across a vast plain, a whole labyrinth of channels is formed. There are a lot of floodplain marshes and old lakes, which flood the neighboring territory during floods.

Almost the entire section of the channel has a natural fringe by the coastal shafts. For protection against floods, 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 surface of the floodplain by a level.

A little bit below the city of Baton Rouge originates the delta of the lobed river. It occupies a rather large area (almost 32 thousand square kilometers).

The Mississippi River at the end of the delta is branched into six short sleeves, from thirty to forty kilometers in length. They also flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The main of these sleeves is called the South West Pass. This is the southwest branch of the Mississippi, which lets more than thirty percent of the entire runoff into the bay.

In the period of floods there is a sharp increase in the water level. Partly they are dumped in Lake Ponschartren, which is located near New Orleans. The rest falls into the river of Alchafalaya, which runs parallel to the Mississippi and also flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Food

Most of the water the river receives from the rain and from the melting of the snow. It is noteworthy that while the right tributaries make a big contribution to the food of the Mississippi. These rivers are formed as a result of the melting of the snow on the Rocky Mountains. The right tributaries feed the Mississippi, as a rule, with storm and rainwater.

Floods

The nature of the river's water regime is associated with spring and summer floods. They also contribute to their heavy rains. Floods sometimes acquire a catastrophic scale. This happens when the melting of snow in the basins of Missouri and Mississippi coincides with the rainfall occurring in the Ohio basin.

In such cases, the strongest floods are observed in the lower and middle reaches of the great river. In the period of such floods, the water flow in the bed increases to fifty to eighty thousand cubic meters per second. The hydrotechnical constructions built in the lower reaches are not able to completely protect the fields and settlements from flooding.

Waterway

Mississippi is a convenient way 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 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 increased again.

Currently, the total length of the shipping routes is twenty-five thousand kilometers. In the lower part of the Mississippi, cargo turnover during the year reaches seven million tons. The main goods are chemicals and building materials, oil products and coal.

It is interesting

In fiction, the Mississippi is associated with Mark Twain. He described the journey on the river in the work "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

Mississippi is considered the cradle of jazz. It was in New Orleans, located on its shores, was born a famous jazzman, whose name is Louis Armstrong.

The golden age for the river was the nineteenth. During this period, along the Mississippi, numerous riverboats were used. Currently, a revival of the old tradition is taking place. However, on the steamers today travel, as a rule, for tourist purposes.

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