Mississippi River Delta

This article is about the mouth of the Mississippi River. For the alluvial plain 300 miles (480 km) north in Mississippi, see Mississippi Delta.

False-color image of the larger Mississippi River Delta
2001 Image of the active delta front before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the delta in 2005

The Mississippi River Delta is the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, southeastern United States. The river delta is a three-million-acre (4,700 sq mi; 12,000 km2) area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast.[1] It is part of the Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States.[2] 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 km2) of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S.[1] The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin and drains about 41% of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second (3,500,000 US gal/s; 13,000,000 L/s).[3][4][5]

  1. ^ a b Couvillion, B.R.; Barras, J.A.; Steyer, G.D.; Sleavin, William; Fischer, Michelle; Beck, Holly; Trahan, Nadine; Griffin, Brad; and Heckman, David, 2011, Land area change in coastal Louisiana from 1932 to 2010: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3164, scale 1:265,000, 12 p. pamphlet.
  2. ^ Louisiana's Coastal Area. "Ecosystem Restoration." LCA – Louisiana Coastal Area. "LCA - Louisiana Coastal Area". Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  3. ^ CWPPRA: Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act. "The Mississippi River Delta Basin." "The Mississippi River Delta Basin". Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  4. ^ Kulp, Mark; Penland, Shea; Williams, S. Jeffress; Jenkins, Chris; Flocks, Jim; and Kindinger, Jack. Spring 2005. Geologic Framework, Evolution, and Sediment Resources for Restoration of the Louisiana Coastal Zone. Journal of Coastal Research SI(44), 56-71. West Palm Beach (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208
  5. ^ "Definition of DELTA". www.merriam-webster.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.