why is the mississippi river delta important

The Mississippi River Delta

is a massive area in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. It is important to the United States because of its land formation, farming, and extensive waterways that allow for importing and exporting of goods. Contents

Full Answer

What is the most important feature of the Mississippi River Delta?

The river is still the most significant, inspiring feature of the Lower Mississippi Delta region. The lower Mississippi River Delta is an enduring theme in American literature. It is the source of great fiction and fancy, travel, history and tales — an inspiration to generations of writers.

What is the Delta and why is it important?

The delta is a vital stopping point along the Mississippi Flyway. The flyway stretches from southern Ontario to the mouth of the Mississippi River, and contains one of the longest migration routes in the Western Hemisphere.

Why are wetlands important to the Mississippi River Delta?

The wetlands that make up most of the Mississippi River Delta are an extremely valuable resource that provides critical services to people, called ecosystem services.

How many people live in the Mississippi River Delta?

The Mississippi River Delta is home to more than two million people. The location of the delta at the mouth of the Mississippi River allowed for the area to be a cultural gateway into the United States, and influenced the mix of nationalities which settled in the area over time, forming the diversity of the region.

What is the Mississippi river delta used for?

In addition to providing habitats for wildlife living in the region, the Mississippi River Delta's wetlands, marshes and barrier islands also provide the vital protection for coastal residents and communities from storm surge and flooding.

Why is the delta river important?

Deltas absorb runoff from both floods (from rivers) and storms (from lakes or the ocean). Deltas also filter water as it slowly makes its way through the delta's distributary network. This can reduce the impact of pollution flowing from upstream.

What is special about Mississippi Delta?

The Delta forms the most important bird and waterfowl migration corridor on the continent and supports North America's largest wetland area and bottomland hardwood forest. The Delta's cultural traditions are as rich and diverse as its natural resources.

Where and what is the Mississippi delta What is its significance?

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.

How are deltas important to the earth?

Deltas provide important ecosystem services, such as filtering water. They are renowned for their high levels of ecological productivity, dynamism and importance to fish, waterfowl and mammals. They are attractive to wildlife because the nutrient-rich waters lead to increased plant growth and food availability.

How do deltas benefit humans?

Deltas remain important to humans even today as, among many other things, a source of sand and gravel. Used in highway, building and infrastructure construction, these highly valuable materials quite literally build our world. Delta land is also important in agricultural use.

What are two facts about the Mississippi river delta?

It's the largest port district in the world. This area also welcomes commerce in the form of hunting, fishing, boating, and birdwatching. A large percentage of jobs in the New Orleans and the coastal Louisiana area are based around these ports and waterways.

What does the Mississippi delta produce?

Sugar and rice dominated the 18th century, and cotton became king in the early 19th century. These row crops remain common, but now wheat, soy, and corn (soy and corn for animal feed) have also become mainstays. Today, 75% of farmland is used to produce row crops, with 25% used for specialty crops.

How does the Mississippi river delta affect humans?

Much of its economy is tied to its coast and wetlands. The coast has extremely productive commercial fisheries, and the wetlands and wildlife draw birders, hunters, anglers, boaters, and other outdoor enthusiasts. The navigable waterways, including the Mississippi River, support shipping and transit.

Why is the MS river important?

As the nation's second-longest river, behind only the conjoining Missouri, the Mississippi provides drinking water for millions and supports a $12.6 billion shipping industry, with 35,300 related jobs. It's one of the greatest water highways on earth, carrying commerce and food for the world.

How did the Mississippi river delta change the earth's surface?

For 7,000 years, the Mississippi River has snaked across southern Louisiana, depositing sediment from 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces across its delta. As sediment accumulated under water, plant communities began to develop, trapping more sediment and building land.

Why is the delta important to ancient Egypt?

As ancient Egypt grew larger and richer, they could build bigger and bigger pyramids because they always had enough food and water. What's more, the Delta was a good place for trade, because they could send goods up the river, or bring in ships from across the entire Mediterranean Sea.

How is the delta important to Egypt?

It is home to over 50 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million. The Nile delta is suitable for intensive agriculture and it supports 63% of the country's agricultural land.

Why is the river so important?

Importance of Rivers They carry water, organisms and important gases and nutrients to many areas. They also help drain rainwater and provide habitats for many species of plants and animals. As they make their way to the sea, rivers help shape the features of the Earth.

How does river delta affect humans?

People living on deltas are increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal hazards such as major storms, extremely high tides, and tsunamis. Many deltas experience a decline in sediment supply due to upstream damming, making them even more vulnerable.

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.

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 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.

Why are levees important?

1. Levees: Levees were primarily built along the river for flood protection and to provide stabilization of the shoreline , allowing for more reliable navigation. Levees were built prior to 1927, but a majority came after the 1927 river flood when the Flood Control Act of 1928 authorized the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. Through this project, a system of levees, floodways, and basin and channel improvement were built to improve flood protection for residents and communities from the river's overspill, and has been largely successful in preventing flood damage over the decades. This system has mitigated extensive flooding and has saved the region billions in potential damage. As such, it is regarded as "the most successful and cost-effective public works projects in the history of the United States." This success, however, has come at a high cost for the region's natural landscapes and ecosystems, as the levees sever the connection between the river and surrounding wetlands. The freshwater and sediment carried by the river is the fuel needed for land growth within the delta, but the levees block this process, cutting off the deposition of sediment in most areas of the delta.

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 Great River Road?

The Great River Road, a network of federal, state, and county roads paralleling the Mississippi River on both sides, offers access to both the river delta and its inhabitants. Driving through communities oriented to the Delta reveals dynamic relationships between people and the land.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why did Tennessee not want to leave the Union?

At first reluctant to secede, Tennessee became one of the bloodiest killing grounds of the Civil War. Proud of their identity as volunteers who had fought for the United States in every American war, many Tennesseans did not desire to leave the Union. Divided into three distinct geographic regions by the Tennessee River, the citizens of the state were not united on the issues of slavery, secession, or Civil War. Following the surrender of Ft. Sumter and President Lincoln’s call for troops, Tennesseans endorsed secession.

Overview

History and growth

Geologic history

Social, economic and cultural history

The Delta today

Threats to the Delta

Mississippi River Delta restoration

See also