| Mobile River | |
|---|---|
 Mobile-Alabama-Coosa River system | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Confluence of Tombigbee and Alabama rivers |
| • elevation | 10.5 m (34 ft) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Mobile Bay, at Mobile, Alabama |
| Length | 72 km (45 mi) |
| Basin size | 115,000 km2 (44,000 sq mi) |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 67,000 cubic feet per second (1,900 m3/s) Min: 9,959 cubic feet per second (282.0 m3/s) Max: 318,468 cubic feet per second (9,018.0 m3/s)[1] Sediment Discharge: 4.5 million tons/year[2] 12,300 tons sediment/day (average) |
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long (72 km) river drains an area of 44,000 square miles (110,000 km2) of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the fourth-largest of primary stream drainage basins entirely in the United States. The river has historically provided the principal navigational access for Alabama. Since construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, it also provides an alternative route into the Ohio River watershed.
The Tombigbee and Alabama River join to form the Mobile River approximately 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Mobile, along the county line between Mobile and Baldwin counties. The combined stream flows south, in a winding course. Approximately 6 miles (10 km) downstream from the confluence, the channel of the river divides, with the Mobile flowing along the western channel. The Tensaw River, a bayou of the Mobile River, flows alongside to the east, separated from 2 to 5 miles (3 to 8 km) as they flow southward. The Mobile River flows through the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta and reaches Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico just east of downtown Mobile.
- ^ "River Plume Productivity" (short title), Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS), Oceanic Atlas of the Gulf of Mexico, 2001-10-04, web: USF-edu-RPlumeProd Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "River Discharge to the Coastal Ocean: A Global Synthesis", John D. Milliman and Katherine L. Farnsworth, 2011, Cambridge University Press.