The city area in New Orleans is between Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of 630 square miles with an average depth of 12 to 14 feet. Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about 40 miles from west t…
Why is the Mississippi River Delta important to New Orleans?
The Great Mississippi River Delta is also compromised by natural causes, including wave erosion and land subsidence. This causes receding in outer areas of the Delta, and makes New Orleans and surrounding communities more vulnerable during tropical storms and hurricanes. It’s an adventure that awaits you!
What is the Mississippi River Delta region?
The Mississippi River Delta region is a 3-million-acre (12,000 km2) area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the Gulf of Mexico on the southeastern coast of Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States.
Does the Mississippi River still exist in New Orleans?
Since the early 20th century, levees, locks, and dams have been built along the water as well. The Mississippi River remains a major part of the New Orleans landscape.
How old is the Delta in New Orleans?
The Lafourche delta formed 2,500 to 500 years ago from a second avulsion that caused the river to relocate to the west of present-day New Orleans. 5. Modern day development (over the past 1,500 years) formed the Plaquemines-Balize delta, also known as Bird's Foot Delta, between the St. Bernard and Lafourche delta. 6.
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Is New Orleans on the Mississippi river delta?
The Great Mississippi River Delta is also compromised by natural causes, including wave erosion and land subsidence. This causes receding in outer areas of the Delta, and makes New Orleans and surrounding communities more vulnerable during tropical storms and hurricanes. It's an adventure that awaits you!
What cities are in the Mississippi delta?
The diversity of the lower Mississippi Delta region's heritage is reflected in the names of cities and towns up and down the river — Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, Altenburg, Wittenburg, Cape Girardeau, Cairo, Hickman, Helena, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Venice.
What is considered the Mississippi delta?
The Mississippi Delta encompasses the northwestern part of the state of Mississippi, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River and to the east by the Loess Bluffs that separate the area from the hills and prairies that characterize much of Mississippi.
What states make up the Mississippi delta?
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers.
What is the closest city to the Mississippi river delta?
Major cities near Delta, MS60 miles to Memphis, TN.223 miles to Birmingham, AL.248 miles to Nashville, TN.275 miles to Baton Rouge, LA.293 miles to Saint Louis, MO.309 miles to New Orleans, LA.332 miles to Tulsa, OK.356 miles to Atlanta, GA.More items...
What areas are considered the Delta?
The Delta covers 35,000 square miles from southern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing 219 counties in seven states and approximately 8.3 million people. In northeastern Louisiana, western Mississippi, and southeastern Arkansas, mile after mile of rich, black, alluvial soil stretches before the eye.
Why is the Mississippi delta disappearing?
Land loss crisis Every 100 minutes, a football field of land disappears into open water. Leveeing of the Mississippi River in the early 20th century severed the tie between the river and its surrounding wetlands, cutting off the Mississippi River Delta from its life-giving river and the sediment it carries.
What percentage of the Mississippi delta is black?
45.3 percent are black. 1.2 percent are Hispanic. 2.5 percent are Asian American. 0.4 percent are Native American.
How many counties are in the Mississippi delta?
18-countyAdults in the 18-county Mississippi Delta region are disproportionately affected by heart disease and other chronic illnesses compared to persons living in other parts of the state and nation.
Is Memphis part of the Mississippi delta?
2. The Mississippi Delta's unofficial capital is in Tennessee. Memphis, which stands on a bluff just across the Mississippi state line, was built on the cotton fortunes from the rich farmland to the south. It's the logical place to begin a Delta adventure.
What percentage of the Mississippi delta is black?
45.3 percent are black. 1.2 percent are Hispanic. 2.5 percent are Asian American. 0.4 percent are Native American.
Where is the Mississippi river delta located?
LouisianaThe Mississippi River Delta Basin is defined as all of the land and shallow estuarine area between the two northernmost passes of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The basin is located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, south of the city of Venice.
Is Memphis in the Mississippi delta?
Dig into almost any important Memphis phenomenon or personality—blues-tinged or not—and you're liable to find Mississippi roots. “Memphis is the capital of the Delta, and we're on the spine—Highway 61,” the blues historian and filmmaker Robert Gordon told me over lunch one day on the south side of Memphis.
How many counties are in the Mississippi delta?
The Mississippi Delta region (shaded in black) includes the following counties: Bolivar, Carroll, Coahoma, Desoto, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington, and Yazoo.
Why is the Mississippi Delta important?
Due to the influx of nutrient-rich soil from the Mississippi River, the delta is a prime area for farming sugar cane, cotton and indigo, crops that were introduced into Louisiana farmlands during the pre-Civil War era. Many of these processes are important resources that the delta still provides today.
How big is the Mississippi Delta?
The Mississippi River Delta is the 7th largest river delta on Earth ( USGS) and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7 million acres (4,200 sq mi; 11,000 km 2) of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S. The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin ...
What is delta cycle?
The delta cycle refers to a dynamic process whereby the river deposits sediment at its outfall, growing a delta lobe, then eventually, seeking a shorter path to the sea, abandons its previous course and associated delta. After the river changes course and abandons the delta headland, the region experiences land loss due to the processes of subsidence, erosion of the marsh shoreline, and the natural redistribution of sands deposited along the delta that create the barrier islands. The delta cycle contains the natural process of land loss and land gain, due to the directionality and discharge of the river. This process formed the bays, bayous, coastal wetlands, and barrier islands that make up the coastline of Louisiana.
What is the largest river in the Mississippi Delta?
The Atchafalaya River is the largest distributary of the Mississippi River and is also considered to be an influential part of the continual land-building processes within the Mississippi River Delta. The river's tributary channel was formed approximately 500 years ago and the Atchafalaya and Wax Lake deltas emerged around the middle of the twentieth century.
How big is the Delta River?
The river delta is a three-million-acre (4,700 sq mi; 12,000 km 2) area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast.
What is the process of the Mississippi River changing course?
This process by which the river changes course is known as avulsion, or delta-switching, and forms the variety of landscapes that make up the Mississippi River Delta.
How long has the Mississippi River been around?
The modern Mississippi River Delta formed over the last approximately 4,500 years as the Mississippi River deposited sand, clay and silt along its banks and in adjacent basins. The Mississippi River Delta is a river-dominated delta system, influenced by the largest river system in North America. The shape of the current birdfoot delta reflects ...
What is the Mississippi Delta?
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) which lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" ...
Why did the Mississippi Delta have undeveloped bottomlands?
As the riverfront areas were developed first and railroads were slow to be constructed , most of the bottomlands in the Delta were undeveloped, even after the Civil War. Both black and white migrants flowed into Mississippi, using their labor to clear land and sell timber in order to buy land.
What is the Delta economy?
For more than two centuries, agriculture has been the mainstay of the Delta economy. Sugar cane and rice were introduced to the region by European settlers from the Caribbean in the 18th century. Sugar and rice production were centered in southern Louisiana, and later in the Arkansas Delta.
What counties are in the Delta?
The Delta includes all or part of the following counties: Washington, Western DeSoto, Humphreys, Carroll, Issaquena, Western Panola, Quitman, Bolivar, Coahoma, Leflore, Sunflower, Sharkey, Tate, Tunica, Tallahatchie, Western Holmes, Western Yazoo, Western Grenada, and Warren. Lexington, Mississippi (located in Holmes County) is also part of the Delta.
How were slaves transported to the Delta?
Many slaves were transported to Delta towns by riverboat from slave markets in New Orleans, which became the fourth largest city in the country by 1840. Other slaves were transported downriver from slave markets at Memphis and Louisville. Still others were transported by sea in the coastwise slave trade. By this time, slavery had long been established as a racial caste. African Americans for generations worked the commodity plantations, which they made extremely profitable. In the opinion of Jefferson Davis, typical of that of Mississippian whites of his day and beyond, Africans being held in slavery reflected the will of Providence, as it led to their Christianizing and to the improvement of their condition, compared to what it would have been had they remained in Africa. According to Davis, the Africans "increased from a few unprofitable savages to millions of efficient Christian laborers."
When did Chinese immigrants come to the Delta?
Chinese began settling in Bolivar County and other Delta counties as plantation workers in the 1870s, though most Delta Chinese families migrated to the state between the 1900s and 1930s. Most Chinese immigrants worked to leave the fields, becoming merchants in the small rural towns. As these have declined, along with other Delta residents ethnic Chinese have moved to cities or other states. Their descendants represent most of the ethnic Asian residents of the Delta recorded in censuses. While many Chinese have left the Delta, their population has increased in the state.
Where is Mississippi State Penitentiary?
The Mississippi Department of Corrections operates the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman, MSP) in unincorporated Sunflower County, within the Mississippi Delta. John Buntin of Governing magazine said that MSP "has long cast its shadow over the Mississippi Delta, including my hometown of Greenville, Mississippi ".
Where to see the Mississippi River in New Orleans?
Ways to See and Enjoy the River. The Mississippi River remains a major part of the New Orleans landscape. Whether you’re jogging beside it in the Bywater, watching the steamboats cruise in the French Quarter, picnicking on the levee Uptown or exploring Old Algiers, the river is hard to miss.
What is the port of New Orleans?
The Port of New Orleans is one of the busiest ports in the world. It was established in 1717 when France controlled Louisiana. It began as an export for tobacco and indigo, and an import for rice and vegetables, but later grew as a major port for cotton. Steamboats, cargo ships, tankers, and barges are notably seen along the water still today. Approximately 175 million tons of freight are transported along the river each year. Today, it serves as a major port for shipping everything from oil and cars to coffee and poultry. Since the early 20th century, levees, locks, and dams have been built along the water as well.
How much freight is transported by the Mississippi River each year?
Approximately 175 million tons of freight are transported along the river each year. Today, it serves as a major port for shipping everything from oil and cars to coffee and poultry. Since the early 20th century, levees, locks, and dams have been built along the water as well.
What are the animals that live in the Mississippi River Delta?
It’s home to hundreds of wildlife species. The Great Mississippi River Delta is home to a wide variety of mammalian, avian, and piscine life. The river itself is home to over 260 different species of fish (which makes up about 25 percent of all fish species in the United States), as well as 60 different species of mussels and crustaceans. This ecosystem is also a corridor for 60 percent of the nation’s migratory birds (about 326 bird species) that use the area during spring and fall migrations. Finally, the Great Mississippi River Delta houses 50 mammal species, and nearly 150 species of amphibians and reptiles—most notably, good old southern alligators.
How much wetlands are lost in Louisiana?
It’s losing 24 square miles of wetlands each year. To put this figure into perspective, that’s a loss of about 10,000 square feet of wetlands per hour! Coastal Louisiana wetlands are compromised by a number of human and natural causes. For example, the construction of channels and levees to make boat travel easier impedes on the migratory patterns of piscine and amphibian wildlife, and sometimes destroys their ecosystems altogether. These channels also streamline the traffic of sediment, sending it straight into the Gulf of Mexico instead of letting it disperse into the wetlands to rebuild and strengthen marshy ecosystems.
What is the Mississippi Delta?
The Lower Mississippi Delta is a vast and vital part of the American landscape. This broad, alluvial valley reaches from southern Illinois to the southeastern tip of Louisiana, covers more than 90,000 miles of rivers and streams, more than 3 million acres of land, and dictates much of the region’s landscape and land use.
What are the names of the cities in the Lower Mississippi Delta?
The diversity of the lower Mississippi Delta region’s heritage is reflected in the names of cities and towns up and down the river — Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, Altenburg, Wittenburg, Cape Girardeau, Cairo, Hickman, Helena, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Venice.
What is the relationship between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico?
As the Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico, the relationship between land and water changes; it is no longer close and intimate, but broad and unknowable. The overwhelming defining feature in the lower Delta is the levee system running for hundreds of miles on both sides of the river.
What is the Creole culture in Louisiana?
Also culturally distinctive within the lower Mississippi Delta region is the Creole population of Louisiana. The term Creole refers to a diversity of cultural groups. The white Creoles of colonial Louisiana were born of French and Spanish parents before 1803.
How many counties are there in the Delta?
The Delta covers 35,000 square miles from southern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing 219 counties in seven states and approximately 8.3 million people. In northeastern Louisiana, western Mississippi, and southeastern Arkansas, mile after mile of rich, black, alluvial soil stretches before the eye.
When did the French settle in Mississippi?
When Pierre le Moyne Iberville brought colonists to present-day Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1699, the French established a line of posts and settlements from present-day Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, and Ste. Genevieve northeastward to Detroit.
Who described the Delta?
For more than two centuries travelers have described their journeys through the Delta. Jonathan Carver and Samuel S. Forman, in the latter decades of the 18th century, were followed by Zadoc Cramer, who described the delta in 180 1. John Bradhury, Frances Trollope, and Charles Dickens recorded their impressions of the inhabitants and the river, and John James Audubon painted the avian life in this region during the early to mid-1800s. These 19th century traveling authors shared their impressions of the lower Delta country not only with Americans living in the East, but Europe as well.
Where is the Mississippi Delta located?
The basin is located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, south of the city of Venice.
What is the Mississippi River Delta Basin?
The entire area is the product of sediment deposition following the latest rise in sea level about 5,000 years ago .
How did the Mississippi River affect Louisiana?
The Mississippi River has had a profound effect on the landforms of coastal Louisiana. The entire area is the product of sediment deposition following the latest rise in sea level about 5,000 years ago. Each Mississippi River deltaic cycle was initiated by a gradual capture of the Mississippi River by a distributary which offered a shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico. After abandonment of an older delta lobe, which would cut off the primary supply of fresh water and sediment, an area would undergo compaction, subsidence, and erosion. The old delta lobe would begin to retreat as the gulf advanced, forming lakes, bays, and sounds. Concurrently, a new delta lobe would begin its advance gulfward. This deltaic process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance gulfward from 15 to 50 miles, forming the present-day coastal plain.
What is the problem with the Mississippi River Delta?
Unlike other areas of coastal Louisiana, the Mississippi River delta is blessed with a relative abundance of inflowing fresh water and sediments.
How far did the delta lobe advance?
This deltaic process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance gulfward from 15 to 50 miles, forming the present-day coastal plain.
What are the problems of the Louisiana coast?
Many areas of the Louisiana coast suffer from a lack of the abundant fresh water and sediment found in the Mississippi River. Since the river is no longer free to alter its course and leave its banks to inundate vast coastal areas, the effects of human and natural forces which promote wetland deterioration are compounded. In this respect the relationship between the Mississippi River and the problems facing coastal wetlands is not limited to the river's delta, but extends across the entire Louisiana coast. The lack of growth in the Mississippi River delta, on a large scale, is as much a coast-wide problem as a basin problem. This source of ample fresh water and sediment, which shaped the Louisiana coast as we know it, is no longer producing a net gain in coastal wetlands, placing the entire Louisiana coast at risk.
What would happen to the delta lobe after abandonment?
After abandonment of an older delta lobe, which would cut off the primary supply of fresh water and sediment, an area would undergo compaction, subsidence, and erosion. The old delta lobe would begin to retreat as the gulf advanced, forming lakes, bays, and sounds.
Overview
The Delta today
The Mississippi River Delta provides an array of natural habitats and resources that benefit not only the state of Louisiana and coastal region, but also the entire nation. The coastal wetlands have a number of diverse landscapes that connect a variety of habitats to both the land and water.
Louisiana's wetlands are one of the nation's most productive and important natural assets. Cons…
History and growth
The modern Mississippi River Delta formed over the last approximately 4,500 years as the Mississippi River deposited sand, clay and silt along its banks and in adjacent basins. The Mississippi River Delta is a river-dominated delta system, influenced by the largest river system in North America. The shape of the current birdfoot delta reflects the dominance the river exerts over the othe…
Geologic history
The formation of the Mississippi River Delta can be traced back to the late Cretaceous Period, approximately 100 million years ago, with the creation of the Mississippi embayment. The embayment began focusing sediment into the Gulf of Mexico, which facilitated the deltaic land-building processes for the future. During the Paleogene Period (approx. 65.5 to 23 million years ago), a series of s…
Social, economic and cultural history
The history and culture that is linked to the Mississippi River Delta is as unique as its geologic landscape. The mouth of the Mississippi River was found in 1519 by Alvarez de Pineda of Spain. Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed the territory around the mouth of the Mississippi River for France in 1682, and the region grew with importance with its strategic location for trade and security.
Threats to the Delta
Throughout its geological history, the Mississippi River Delta experienced natural processes of growth and retraction as a result of sediment deposition from the river. However, in recent history, the processes of land loss have far surpassed the river's land-building properties due to a number of factors. Some of the causes of delta land loss stem from natural causes, like hurricanes and …
Mississippi River Delta restoration
The Mississippi River took thousands of years to build its delta, but land loss is occurring at a much faster pace. A number of steps have been taken over the past decade to increase the resiliency of coastal Louisiana. Research has been conducted in order to find the most feasible and effective restoration projects to mitigate further land loss and to implement rebuilding processes for the delta. Studies have conservatively estimated that without sediment input, 4,00…
See also
• Mississippi Valley Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
Overview
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" ("Southern" in the sense of "characteristic of its region, the American South"), b…
Agriculture and the Delta economy
For more than two centuries, agriculture has been the mainstay of the Delta economy. Sugar cane and rice were introduced to the region by European settlers from the Caribbean in the 18th century. Sugar and rice production were centered in southern Louisiana, and later in the Arkansas Delta.
Early agriculture also included limited tobacco production in the Natchez area and indigo in the lower Mississippi. French yeomen settlers, supported by extensive families, had begun the back-breaki…
Geography
Despite the name, this region is not the delta of the Mississippi River. The shifting river delta at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf Coast lies some 300 miles south of this area, and is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta. Rather, the Mississippi Delta is part of an alluvial plain, created by regular flooding of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers over thousands of years.
Demographics
In the 21st century, about one-third of Mississippi's African American population resides in the Delta, which has many black-majority state legislative districts. Much of the Delta is included in Mississippi's 2nd congressional district, represented by Democrat Bennie Thompson.
Chinese began settling in Bolivar County and other Delta counties as plantation workers in the 1870s, though most Delta Chinese families migrated to the state between the 1900s and 1930s. …
Political environment
Delta politics was dominated by pro-slavery Democrats during the post-Civil War era, though areas of resistance from blacks and whites remained throughout the era. Some of these Southern Democrats resorted to using fraud, violence, and intimidation to regain control of the state legislature in the late 19th century. Civic groups such as the Red Shirts in Mississippi were active against Republicans and blacks sometimes using violence to suppress their voting for state can…
Culture
The Delta is strongly associated as the place where several genres of popular music originated, including Delta blues and rock and roll. The mostly black sharecroppers and tenant farmers had lives marked by poverty and hardship but they expressed their struggles in music that became the beat, rhythm and songs of cities and a nation.
Gussow (2010) examines the conflict between blues musicians and black ministers in the regio…
Encompassed towns
• Anguilla
• Belzoni
• Charleston
• Clarksdale
• Cleveland
Government and infrastructure
The Mississippi Department of Corrections operates the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman, MSP) in unincorporated Sunflower County, within the Mississippi Delta. John Buntin of Governing magazine said that MSP "has long cast its shadow over the Mississippi Delta, including my hometown of Greenville, Mississippi".