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Introduction to the River

The Mississippi River is one of the world'due south major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is also one of the world's nigh of import commercial waterways and i of North America's keen migration routes for both birds and fishes.

Native Americans lived along its banks and used the river for sustenance and transportation. Early European explorers used the Mississippi to explore the interior and the northern reaches of what was to become the United States. Fur traders plied their trade on the river and soldiers of several nations garrisoned troops at strategic points, at diverse times, along the river when the area was still on the frontier.

White settlers from Europe and the U.s. (and frequently their slaves) arrived on steamboats dispossessing the Native Americans of their lands and converting the mural into farms and cities.

Today, the Mississippi River powers a significant segment of the economic system in the upper Midwest. Barges and their tows motility approximately 175 million tons of freight each year on the upper Mississippi through a organisation of 29 locks and dams. It is besides a major recreational resource for boaters, canoeists, hunters, anglers, and birdwatchers and offers many outdoor opportunities.

A more than comprehensive give-and-take of the history of the upper Mississippi River, and specifically, the 72 mile long corridor inside the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, may be institute online.

Dimensions

Length

The Mississippi River is the second longest river in North America, flowing 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca through the center of the continental U.s. to the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, is about 100 miles longer. Some describe the Mississippi River as beingness the third longest river system in the world, if the length of Missouri and Ohio Rivers are added to the Mississippi's main stem.

When compared to other world rivers, the Mississippi-Missouri River combination ranks fourth in length (3,710 miles/5,970km) post-obit the Nile (iv,160 miles/6,693km), the Amazon (4,000 miles/6,436km), and the Yangtze Rivers (3,964 miles/six,378km). At a rivers delta, the reported length may increase or decrease as deposition and erosion occurs.

As a result, different lengths may exist reported depending upon the twelvemonth or measurement method. The staff of Itasca State Park at the Mississippi's headwaters suggest the chief stem of the river is ii,552 miles long. The US Geologic Survey has published a number of 2,300 miles, the EPA says it is 2,320 miles long, and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area suggests the river's length is 2,350 miles.

Width

At Lake Itasca, the river is between 20 and 30 feet wide, the narrowest stretch for its entire length. The widest part of the Mississippi tin can exist found at Lake Winnibigoshish nearly Bena, MN, where it is wider than 11 miles. The widest navigable section in the shipping channel of the Mississippi is Lake Pepin, where the channel is approximately 2 miles wide.

Speed

At the headwaters of the Mississippi, the average surface speed of the water is nigh 1.2 miles per hour - roughly one-one-half every bit fast equally people walk. At New Orleans the river flows at virtually iii miles per hour. But the speed changes equally water levels rising or fall and where the river widens, narrows, becomes more shallow or some combination of these factors. It takes almost three months for water that leaves Lake Itasca, the river's source, to reach the Gulf of United mexican states.

Volume

Another style to measure the size of a river is by the corporeality of water it discharges. Using this measure out the Mississippi River is the 15th largest river in the earth discharging xvi,792 cubic meters (593,003 cubic feet) of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico. The biggest river by belch book is the Amazon at an impressive 209,000 cubic meters (7,380,765 cubic feet) per 2nd. The Amazon drains a rainforest while the Mississippi drains much of the surface area between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, much of which is fairly dry out.

At Lake Itasca, the average flow rate is 6 cubic feet per second. At Upper St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the northern nearly Lock and Dam, the average flow rate is 12,000 cubic feet per second or 89,869 gallons per second. At New Orleans, the average flow charge per unit is 600,000 cubic anxiety per second.

Watershed Size

Some like to measure the size of a river is by the size of its watershed, which is the area drained by a river and its tributaries. The Mississippi River drains an area of about 3.2 million square kilometers (one.2 million foursquare miles) including all or parts of 32 states and two Canadian provinces, about 40% of the continental United States. The Mississippi River watershed is the quaternary largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The Amazon for comparison drains about seven.one million foursquare kilometers (2.7 million square miles).

Water Supply

Communities up and downwardly the river utilise the Mississippi to obtain freshwater and to discharge their industrial and municipal waste. We don't have good figures on h2o use for the whole Mississippi River Bowl, but we accept some clues. A January 2000 study published past the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Commission states that shut to 15 one thousand thousand people rely on the Mississippi River or its tributaries in just the upper half of the bowl (from Cairo, IL to Minneapolis, MN). A frequently cited figure of 18 meg people using the Mississippi River Watershed for water supply comes from a 1982 written report by the Upper Mississippi River Bowl Committee. The Environmental Protection Agency but says that more than fifty cities rely on the Mississippi for daily water supply.

Commerce

Agriculture has been the ascendant land use for nigh 200 years in the Mississippi basin, and has altered the hydrologic cycle and free energy budget of the region. The agricultural products and the huge agribusiness industry that has developed in the basin produce 92% of the nation's agricultural exports, 78% of the world's exports in feed grains and soybeans, and nearly of the livestock and hogs produced nationally. Sixty per centum of all grain exported from the US is shipped on the Mississippi River through the Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana.

In measure of tonnage, the largest port district in the world is located forth the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana. The Port of Southward Louisiana is one of the largest volume ports in the Usa. Representing 500 million tons of shipped goods per year (according to the Port of New Orleans), the Mississippi River barge port system is significant to national merchandise.

Shipping at the lower end of the Mississippi is focused on petroleum and petroleum products, iron and steel, grain, rubber, newspaper, wood, coffee, coal, chemicals, and edible oils.

To move goods upward and down the Mississippi, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains a ix-human foot shipping channel from Baton Rouge, LA to Minneapolis, MN. From Baton Rouge by New Orleans to Head of Passes, a 45 pes aqueduct is maintained to allow bounding main-going vessels access to ports between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Background Data

At that place are seven.489 gallons of water in a cubic pes. One cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds. A 48 foot semi-truck trailer is a three,600 cubic pes container.

• At Lake Itasca, it would take x minutes for one semi-trailer of water to period out of the lake into the Mississippi.
• At St. Anthony Falls, the equivalent of 3 semi-trailers full of h2o get over the falls every second.
• At New Orleans, the equivalent of 166 semi-trailers of water flow past Algiers Bespeak each second.

Other Resources

More than information about water quality within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (Minnesota) may be found in the Land of the River report.

The River of History discusses the history represented inside the 72 mile corridor of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Expanse, including the history of Native Americans and dispossession, exploration, transportation, commerce, navigation, and other topics. The River of History is provided online.

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Source: https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm

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