On what continent does the Mississippi River flow? Mississippi River - "great river"

Mississippi Length: 5,985 kilometers.

Mississippi basin area: 3,220,000 square kilometers.

Where does the Mississippi flow? the largest and most important river in North America, the 4th longest river in the world: if we take the Missouri River as its origin, its flow length is 6530 km; the area, it and its tributaries, is equal to 3,100,000 square kilometers. The Mississippi originates in northern Minnesota from Lake Itasca, which lies at an altitude of 1,575 meters above sea level, at 47° and 95° west longitude. Its source was precisely found by the American Schoolkraust in 1832. From Lake Itasca, the Mississippi flows first north into Lake Traverse, where it receives several other rivers, and soon turns east and, flowing through Lake Cass and many other lakes, makes turns into in all possible directions to Cross Wing, from where it heads south. On its way to Minneapolis, the Mississippi forms the majestic St. Antonia, where shipping begins; here the river descends 66' in less than a length of 1.5 km, including its sheer drop from a height of 17'.

Going further south, a few kilometers from the city of St. Paul, the Mississippi forms the border of the state of Wisconsin and expands into the huge and picturesque Lake Pepin, bordered by vertical calcareous cliffs about 400` in height. Going further and further to the south, the river flows on the borders of the states of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana on the right, and on the left - the states of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. After a winding path, below New Orleans, the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico in 5 branches, at 29° northern latitude and 89°12` west longitude. Its most important tributaries are the Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas and Red River; besides them, it takes on the right: Minnesota, Iowa and De Moines, and on the left - Wisconsin and Illinois. The Missouri is longer than the Mississippi until its confluence, where the river is called the Upper Mississippi. The average amount of water discharged by the Mississippi per second is 675,000 cubic meters. ft. The width of the Mississippi at St. Louis is 1,070 meters, at 1,200 meters, at New Orleans 760 meters, between Cairo and the mouth of the Red River - an average of 1,300 meters, below the Red River - an average of 1,020 meters. greatest depth between the Red River and New Orleans - 4.5 meters. The average speed of the river between St. Louis and the Gulf of Mexico is 110 km per day. The Mississippi River valley contains a vast and fertile, only occasionally undulating; and the works of its southern part are very different from the northern. In the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, along its banks there are alluvial plains and, lying below the water level and suffering from, although partly protected by artificial embankments and dams.

At the mouth The Mississippi forms a delta 320 km long and 300 km wide, with an area of ​​31,860 square kilometers; 1/3 of this delta is occupied by swamps and lakes; sandy shoals greatly impede navigation at the mouth, as a result of which the main branch of the South Pass is deepened to almost 7 m with the help of dams; The delta is crossed by many streams called "bayous", which receive their water from the Mississippi when it is in flood. The amount of silt carried by the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the calculations of Abbott and Homphrey, will amount to an average mass per year of an area of ​​1.5 square km.

Tributaries of the Mississippi: The largest right tributaries are the Minnesota, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River; left - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio.

Mississippi Freeze: doesn't freeze.

The Mississippi River has an unusually banal name, despite the fact that it sounds promising. Translated from the Ojibwe language of the Great Lakes region, misi-ziibi means " great river».
The river really is like that, but not where it originates and where it got its name. The powerful and deep Mississippi becomes closer to the south.
The first European to see it was spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto. He crossed the river near Greenville in 1541, but did not realize that it was the main river of North America. According to other sources, Spanish expeditions entered the Mississippi delta as early as 1518-19, and even in the Spanish geographical map 1513, the river delta was already designated. The Spaniards gave it the name "River of the Holy Spirit".
The first actual explorers of the Mississippi were in the 17th century. French. In 1681-82. Robert de la Salle sailed along it almost from source to mouth, making ends meet. After his voyage, the French declared the entire Mississippi lowland their possessions and called the territory Louisiana, and the river itself became the main waterway of America, along which they began to lower cargo on barges.
In 1763, under the Treaty of Paris, the lands east of the mouth of the Mississippi were transferred to Great Britain, and to the west - to Spain, but in 1800 France bought Spanish Louisiana and three years later sold it to the United States. In 1815, the United States also took over the British part, winning the Battle of New Orleans.
The "Golden Age" in Mississippi history was marked by the advent of steamboats. The first paddle steamer, the New Orleans, sailed the river in 1811 from Ohio to New Orleans.
This mode of transportation has made the Mississippi the busiest waterway on the planet. Everyone traveled by ship - both the rich (in the cabins) and the poor (on the lower deck). By the end of the 1850s, up to five thousand passenger and cargo ships a year passed on both sides of the river. In 1856, the river was crossed by a railroad. The first bridge between Rock Island and Davenport became a stumbling block: it interfered with the giants plowing the water - and two weeks after its opening, one of the steamboats rammed part of the bridge and caught fire. The trial reached Abraham Lincoln, who spoke in support railway transport. Years of struggle between owners railways and ships eventually led to the fact that the shipping company began to fade away, but held on until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, there were still 559 steamships on the Mississippi. IN further life showed that it is still more convenient to transport heavy loads by water, and the river again became the most important transport artery. And after World War II, steamships unexpectedly experienced a second youth: hundreds of tourist ships sailed along the Mississippi, ideal for romantic trips.

Geography

The Mississippi is the main river and communication artery of the United States. It flows through ten states, and most of the borders between them run right down the middle of the river. Therefore on political map The US path of the Mississippi is instantly determined. The river originates in Lake Itasca (Minnesota) and, having traveled 3,770 km, flows into 160 km south of New Orleans. The part of the Mississippi from the source to the confluence of the river is considered the upper part. South of Ohio begins the Lower Mississippi.
The world's first deceiver - that's what Mark Twain called this river. In its lower course it winds across the plain as it pleases. In one spring it can become longer or shorter, change both its course and the fates of the people living on its banks.

The Mississippi forms the largest river system in North America. It flows slowly from north to south, bends many times in its lower reaches, forming wide meanders and today reaches 3,770 km in length. Together with its major tributary, the Missouri, the river draws water from 31 states, and its basin stretches from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Appalachians in the east and the Canadian border in the north. Together with it, it forms the fourth longest river system in the world.
Mississippi has always been distinguished by its capricious and unbridled disposition. People living on its banks were constantly under threat of floods. In 1849, a large part of New Orleans was under water, and taming the river became one of the most important national tasks. Work has begun on deepening the riverbed, strengthening the banks, and building dams, but this is in to a greater extent facilitated navigation, but did not protect from the elements. In 1927, one of the most catastrophic floods in US history occurred. As a result of prolonged downpours, the river overflowed its banks, destroyed the dam system in its lower reaches, flooded vast areas, left 700 thousand people homeless, and killed 246 people. In some places, the depth of flooding reached 10 m, and the width of the river in the Memphis area was 97 km. After this disaster, the world's longest dam system was built on the Mississippi. On the one hand, this did not save the country from the elements (severe flooding occurred again in 1993), but on the other, it led to new serious problems. Due to the deepening of the riverbed, the river lost some of its natural meanders and shallows; it stopped supplying the surrounding areas with fertile silt, being blocked by engineering structures. The amount of sediment carried by the river into the Gulf of Mexico has also decreased, resulting in a slower rate of delta growth. Throughout the history of the Mississippi, its delta, formed by sediment, has constantly changed and shifted, cutting deeply into the Gulf of Mexico. IN recent years The main mouth of the Mississippi tends to move toward the Atchafalaya River, one of the right branches. This poses a major hydrological challenge for engineers, as the change in course would mean building new dams and canals, a problem for ports and petrochemical plants in the delta, but by properly redirecting the sediment-rich flow of water, soils west of the mouth could be restored.
There is another problem: catastrophic pollution of the river and the formation of a dead zone off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In this regard, steps are being taken to clean up the tributaries of the Mississippi, to create national parks and preventing agricultural waste from entering the river.

General information

Mouth: Gulf of Mexico, 160 km from New Orleans.

Largest cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans.

Numbers

Length: 3770 km (together with Missouri - 6420 km).

Water basin area: 2,981,076 km2.

Source height: 450 m.

Delta area: 28,600m2

Average water flow at the mouth: 12,743 m 3 /s

Economy

Shipping.

Cargo transportation: 300 million tons per year (oil, coal, chemical and agricultural products).

Tourism.
The Mississippi Delta provides 16% of the US fish catch (crabs, shrimp, crayfish, oysters), up to 18% of oil supplies.

Agriculture in the delta: cultivation of rice, soybeans, sugarcane and cotton.

Climate and weather

Continental in the north and subtropical in the south with mild winters and hot, humid summers.

Attractions

■ Minneapolis;
■ New Orleans;
■Baton Rouge;
■ St. Louis;
■ Seven national parks along the river;
■ Lots of beautiful bridges.

Curious facts

■ After the clay-yellow Missouri flows into the bluish Mississippi at St. Louis, they flow for about 40 km without mixing, in two streams, and in the Cairo area the already turbid Mississippi takes in the light waters of the Ohio, and the picture repeats.
■ The Mississippi Canal is connected to the Great Lakes in the north, and from there, via the St. Lawrence River, to Atlantic Ocean.
■ Satellite imagery shows that the Mississippi does not “end” at the Gulf of Mexico. Fresh water The river, without mixing with the sea, flows around the Florida peninsula and enters directly into! Only somewhere at the latitude of Georgia does river water “dissolve” in ocean water.
■ More than any other famous name, Mark Twain is associated with Mississippi. The tireless Samuel Clemens became a pilot on the river, and the river became one of Mark Twain's main characters. By the way, the writer borrowed his literary pseudonym from the vocabulary of rivermen who measured the depth of water in the fairway: “Mark Twain” literally translates as “mark two!”

■ The Mississippi River is the cradle of jazz. Still in Memphis late XIX V. ragtime was born, and later in New Orleans - traditional jazz. The great jazzman Louis Armstrong was born in the same city in 1901. At the beginning of the 20th century. Pleasure steamers with bands playing on them sailed up and down the Mississippi. In the 1920s, the musical act Show Boat became popular, and the ballad Old Man River became identified with the Mississippi River itself.

One of the world's greatest rivers.

Its length is 3766 km (from the Mis-su-ri source - 5971 km, the third longest river in the world), the basin area is 3300 thousand km2. It takes a-cha-lo from a small lake Ai-tas-ka (for-ved-nickname Ai-tas-ka) at an altitude of 450 m, crosses from the north to the south of the territory of the country, it flows into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The basin of the river is a whole set of dis- tances in the pre-de-la of the Central and Great Plains, from behind the og-ra-ni -chen Ska-li-sty-mi mountains, from the east - Ap-pa-la-cha-mi, from the se-ve-ra - edge of Lav-ren-tiy-skoy -you-she-no-sti. Main pri-ki: Min-ne-so-ta, Ai-o-va, Des Moines, Mis-su-ri, White River, Ar-kan-zas, Red River (great -vye), Black River, Wis-kon-sin, Rock, Il-li-nois, Kas-ka-skia, Ohio, Hut-chi, Yazoo, Big Black River (left) .

According to the morphological structure of the valley and the hydro-logical regime of the Mississippi, it is divided into the Upper Mis-si-si-pi and Lower Miss-si-si-pi. The upper Mis-si-si-pi (from the source to the confluence of the Ohio River) flows along the swampy, covered lot -numerous lakes-ra-mi le-si-stay places; in Russia there are many po-ro-gov and stone-me-re-ka-tov, the most significant of them are found in the cities of Min-nea-po-lis and Saint-Paul (vo-do-pa-dy Saint-An-to-ni). Not in the same place in the gorge with the steep slopes from the west. Upper Miss-si-si-pi behind-re-gu-li-ro-va-on many-numerous areas, from Min-nea-po-li-sa and Saint-Pau -la to the confluence of Mis-su-ri so-oru-but 29 dams and sluices. Not the same mis-su-ri muddy, dirty-but-bu-ro-colored water this is at a length of 150- 180 km are in Mississippi in the same Russian village next to the ot-no-si-tel-but transparent place. The lower Mis-si-si-pi (from the mouth of the Ohio to the sea) flows along a vast plain, complex al-lu-vi-al-ny-mi from-lo-zhe-niya-mi, shi-ri-na to-li-ny along-ste-pen-but increase-chi-va-et-sya down the line from 25 to 70- 100 km; Rus-lo river is from-vi-li-stoe, with many ru-ka-va-mi and old-ri-tsa-mi. The lower Mis-si-si-pi is not for-re-gu-li-ro-va-na. Almost all of the teaching is Rus-lo edged-le-but with natural be-re-go-you-mi va-la-mi, uk-re-p-len-ny-mi in the whole Lyakh protect-you from the water-not-my system of artificial dams.

When it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi forms a wide delta (area 23.9 thousand km2). The top of the delta is located above the city of Ba-ton Rouge, in a place from the river to the right of the mouth about the Old River, which unites with the Red River. The delta network consists of two main ru-kas - the left one, the main one Mis-si-si-pi (continued re -ki in the delta region, length about 515 km) and right (about 220 km), consisting of the Old River and ru-ka-va At-cha-fa-laya. The left channel flows into the open, deep part of the Gulf of Mexico, breaking up into a number of large rivers. waters and small waters in the area of ​​the modern Ba-liz delta (the “bird’s paw” type). The main coastal ru-ka-va (from the west to the east) are South-West, South, Loutr. Shi-ri-na vo-do-to-kov in the Ba-liz del-me-nya-et-sya from a few meters to 1 km, depth from 1 to 30 m. The natural depth on the estuary banks of the river banks is usually less than 3 m. -cutting through a system of lakes (Grand Lake, Six Mile, etc.). According to the now non-functioning del-rivals, the del-ial equals have been preserved on the top os-tat-ki of ancient ru-sels, the so-called bayou (small vo-dos with a very slow-moving te-che-none, hour-over-grown- shi-ti-tel-no-stu). There are many lakes in the delta (Mo-re-pa, Pont-char-train, Sal-va-dor, etc.). An important part of the hydro-graphical network of deltas is water lands.

Pi-ta-nie is mixed, snow-ho-howling and do-zh-de-howling. The right streams bring predominantly melting waters (result of snow melting in the Rocky Mountains), the left streams - pi -ta-yut Mississippi is basically to-w-de-you-in-da-mi. For re-zhi-ma re-ki ha-rak-ter-ny spring-not-summer-on-lo-vo-dier and low autumn-not-winter me-zhen. Frequently stormy waters, the highest of them are formed when melting occurs in a dream -gov in the basins of the Upper Miss-si-si-pi and Mis-su-ri and you-pa-de-niya of abundant rain-days in the basin of Ohio. In the Mississippi basin there are often strong waters, the most destructive of which was in 1927 (there was a -on a territory with an area of ​​about 600 thousand km2). In 1993, they left the banks of the Mississippi - Mis-su-ri, Ill-nois, Des Moines and Wis-con-sin (for-the-p-le-but 60 thousand km2 of land). The average long-term water flow rate at the Viksberg hydrological station (about 750 km from the bay) is 15980 m3/s (annual volume of the stock is 504 km3). In the seasonal ko-le-ba-ni-yah of water there is a good-ro-sho-you-de-la-you-have-a-lot-of-water (ve-sen-not -summer in July-le-Jan-va-re) and low-water (me-zhen in July-le-Yan-va-re) periods , on which 59.5 and 40.5% of the year come from the vet-st-ven-no. The most watery months are April (14.3% of the year), May (12.6%) and March (12.4% ), the lowest water months are September and October (4.1% of the annual rate each). Maximum average monthly water flow rates (52-54 thousand m3/s) are observed in February, April and May , small (about 2900 m3/s) - in October. In the region of the Mississippi delta, the maximum flow of the Red River and the flow into the Gulf of Mexico averages 582 km3/year.

On the dams of Mis-su-ri (in 1953-1967) and Ar-kan-zas (in 1963-1970), a number of large dams and water storage facilities were built. nothing, which led to a two-fold decrease in the number of suspended sediments at the mouth (since these properties have - there is an increased turbidity of the water). At the end of the 19th century it was about 500 million tons/year, in the 1st half of the 20th century - approx. 400 million tons/year, at the end of the 20th century - 210 million tons/year.

The average height of the seashores of the Mississippi is 0.43 m. Despite the small size , you are along the Miss-si-si-pi river, which has very small water inclinations on the top, located -the country is located at a distance of up to 400 km from the bay. Special waters during the tidal phase in the middle of the winter can spread near the bottom for a distance of up to 240 km. On the coastal delta, tropical hurrays sometimes appear, with curtains wind, strong waves, driven by higher water levels. Among the most powerful were the cheers of Bet-si (1965), Ka-mil-la (1969), Fre-de-rik (1979), Kat-ri -on (2005). During the hurray-ga-na Kat-ri-na in the lower-name ru-ka-va Mis-si-si-pi ve-li-chi-na na-go-na pre-you-si- you have protective dams (about 7 m), in many places they were broken, most of the city of New Or-le-an is behind was behind-the-linen; In the state of Louisiana, about 1,600 people died. According to many estimates, this hur-ra-gan is the largest natural cata-st-ro-fa in the history of the United States.

Mississippi is an important transport art of the country. River su-do-khod-st-vo os-sche-st-v-la-et-sya from the mouth to Min-nea-po-li-sa and Saint-Paul-la, ocean-skie su -yes, underneath the corner of the South-Western ru-kav and further along the ru-ka-vu of Mis-si-si-pi to the city of Ba-ton- Rouge Across the del-river there passes a Be-re-go-howl canal, connecting the port along the shore from the covered part of At -lan-ti-che-go ocean and Mexico-kan-go gulf. The Mississippi is connected with the basin of the Great Lakes and the St. Lavrentia River of the Il-li-noy waterway. There are 241 species of fish in the waters of the river basin. Ob-va-lo-va-nie and straightening of the Rus-la of the Lower Mis-si-si-pi, as well as cutting down forests and draining floodplains for races - the reduction of agricultural lands led to the destruction of 80% of flood meadows. Runoff from agricultural lands caused pollution of the river waters with pests and toxic substances -mi, de-fi-cit ki-slo-ro-da and ev-tro-fi-ro-va-nie rya-da vo-do-kov and vo-do-yom. On the Mississippi (down the river) there are large cities and ports of Min-nea-po-lis, St. Paul, Da-ven-port, Saint-Louis, Memphis, Ba-ton-Rouge, New Or-les-en.

The first European expedition under the command of E. de Soto reached the Mississippi in the area of ​​the modern city of Memphis in 1541 and went down to the mouth; The Spanish called her the River of the Holy Spirit.

The longest river artery in North America is the Mississippi with its tributary of the Missouri (6,420 km), the drainage area of ​​which is 3,300 thousand square meters. km.

The river originates from the small Lake Itasca and flows headwaters through the swampy wooded area of ​​Minnesota covered with numerous lakes.

According to morphological features, the valley and bed of the Mississippi is divided into three sections: upper, middle and lower; the boundaries between them are the mouths of the largest tributaries - the Missouri and Ohio. In its upper reaches, the river flows through small lakes and wetlands. There are many rapids and rocky rifts in the areas between lakes. In the area between the mouths of the Minnesota and Des Moines rivers, the Mississippi Valley, cutting into limestone, narrows and forms rapids near the cities of Rock Island and Keokuk (Keokuk). The largest waterfall is St. Anthony's near St. Paul.

Flowing through the Central Plains, the Mississippi receives a number of large tributaries: Minnesota, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River (right), Chip Pewa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio (left). The tributaries cut their way through the arid spaces and, cutting deep into the lush strata of the Great Plains, carry out a huge amount of alluvium, but little water. Therefore, Mississippi, even after the merger, does not yet become Missouri full-flowing river. It becomes powerful only after the Ohio flows into it.

The section of the river from the confluence of the Ohio to the mouth is considered the lower reaches. The width of the valley below the mouth of the Ohio reaches 25 km, and in the state of Louisiana even 70-100 km. The width of the Mississippi near New Orleans is 2400 m. The river bed in this section is winding and has many oxbow lakes.

The river regimes of the Mississippi system are quite diverse. Yes, those whose origins are in the Rocky Mountains, highest level have in the summer. In winter they are covered with ice for several months. The right tributaries of the middle Mississippi are of the Prairian type, and the left ones are of the Appalachian type. In the lower reaches the river never freezes.

The Mississippi's maximum flood occurs between March and May. The average annual flow of water above the mouth of the Missouri is about 1900 cubic meters. m/sec., before the confluence of the Ohio - about 5800 cubic meters. m/sec., at the mouth - 19,000 cubic meters. m/sec. The volume of average annual flow is about 600 cubic meters. m/km, and sediment - 211 million cubic meters. m.

In its upper reaches, the Mississippi slowly emerges from a labyrinth of lakes, swamps and peat bogs. A long-standing glacier filled its old valley with boulders and clay, and the river had to build a new channel along the edge of a shield made of bedrock, forming rapids and waterfalls.

The 20 m high St. Anthony Falls is considered the limit of the crystalline shield. Descending from St. Anthony Falls, the Mississippi finds its old course. From this point it flows relatively calmly and becomes navigable.

There are many islands on the Mississippi, so many of them that they were given numbers instead of names. After each flood, some of them turn into peninsulas or disappear completely, some are divided into parts, others appear again, leading geographers and captains astray. All the islands are slowly moving downstream. The banks that are turned against the current are eroded by the river, and new sediments are deposited on the opposite ones. Therefore, at their upper ends you can often see tall forest, on the lower ones - a bare sand spit, which begins to be overgrown with vines... An example of such an island could be Jackson Island, on which he was hiding literary hero Huckleberry Finn.

The Mississippi reaches its present size after its confluence with the Ohio - the “Beautiful River,” as French explorers called it. From where it flows into the Ohio, the Mississippi can already be considered an established river, with a developed profile. In its lower course, the Mississippi is divided into numerous branches. Together with its tributaries, the branches form a labyrinth of swampy, slow flows. To prevent flooding, each branch will have to be protected by dams.

The Mississippi carries a huge amount of silt into the sea: 211 million cubic meters. m per year. It fills the Gulf of Mexico, pushing out a large delta 320 km long. and 300 km. width.

The bed of the Mississippi does not expand towards the mouth, but, on the contrary, narrows. The delta is shaped like a crow's foot. It is flooded every year during floods. Low-lying places are overgrown with damp subtropical forests. The forests are densely intertwined with vines, the branches are covered with hanging epiphytes. Forests do not grow on crow's feet due to high humidity. Swampy spits that barely rise out of the water, only weakly secured by the root of the reeds. At the end of summer, the Mississippi becomes very shallow. Great depths are preserved only in the lower reaches. Early spring the river is flooding heavily. The main reason Floods are common in Ohio. Often the water level in Ohio rises so much that the riverbed of the Mississippi cannot contain it. Some Ohio water moves up the Mississippi, returning water main river back in a draft of several tens of kilometers.

The rivers of the Mississippi system are of great economic importance. The total length of the basin's shipping routes is over 25 thousand square meters. km. Mississippi connected by canals to the system Big Lakes. A number of large power plants were built on tributaries of the Mississippi.

The Mississippi is the greatest and most abundant river in North America and the world, the basin of which stretches from the forested mountains of the Appalachians in the east to the highest rocky ridges of the Cordillera in the west, from the Great American Lakes in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. The Indians gave the name “Father of Waters” (Messi Sipi) to the Mississippi River, the River of the Holy Spirit; in its lower reaches it is called the “River of Ramparts.”

Mississippi is complicated river system looks like giant tree from the interweaving of many water streams, and its mighty daughters are the Missouri and Ohio rivers. Until a certain time, the Mississippi-Missouri Watercourse was considered the longest on earth, but after the straightening of its channel, the length decreased by several hundred kilometers. Now this system ranks third in extent on Earth after the Nile and the Amazon. The Mississippi–Missouri system has a length of 6,420 km. The length of the Mississippi River, according to the American Gazetteer, is 3,730 km, although there are other data (3,770 km, 3,902 km). The Mississippi Basin occupies about ½ of the US territory and is home to half the country's population. This river is the most abundant in North America; it carries 2.5 times more water than the Volga into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi is called the river of disasters.

Where does the Mississippi River begin?

The Mississippi River begins in the northern part of the United States at Central Plains in Minnesota. The source of the river is Lake Itasca, located at an altitude of 467 meters. Lake Itasca is within national park"Itasca". The source coordinates are approximately 47.2 degrees. With. w. and 95.2 degrees. h. d.

The nature of the river flow

From its source, the Mississippi flows southward, that is, to the Gulf of Mexico, crossing ten states. At first she wanders for a long time among forests, lakes, and swamps. Then it crosses the plateau and emerges into a spacious fertile lowland created by its sediments. It flows into the bay like a mighty river. On its way the Mississippi takes large number large and small rivers. Its course is typical for plain river. This river crosses the following states: Minnesota and Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. There are 31 states in the river basin. The Mississippi River is conventionally divided into two parts, upper and lower. The Upper Mississippi is before the confluence of the Ohio River, and the Lower Mississippi is after its confluence.

In the upper part of the river the flow speed is significant, there are rapids and waterfalls. The largest waterfall is near the city of Saint Paul, the height of which reaches 15 meters. Several dams have been built on the river between the cities of Minneapolis and St. Louis. Steep banks hang over the river, becoming lower to the south.

In the middle course, the river becomes wider and fuller after its confluence with the Missouri, and the flow speed slows down. In the area from the mouth of the Ohio, the river has many islands formed from sediment from the river. These islands are slowly moving to the south, the current slowly washes out the rocks that make up the islands and carries them south. The islands do not have names, but numbers.

The lower reaches of the Mississippi, that is, after the Ohio River flows into it, has many branches, islands, and wetlands. The width of the river is from 2 to 2.5 km. At the point where the river flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the width of the channel reaches 160 km. A large delta has formed near the river, its width is 300 km and its length is 320 km. The delta is composed of silty rocks brought by the river.

Tributaries of the Mississippi

The largest left tributaries are the Missouri, Ohio and Illinois, in addition there are also smaller ones. major tributaries, like Chiptowa, Black River, Wisconsin, Rock, Beaver Creek, Middle Aubayon, Yazoo, Homochitto and others.

The largest right tributaries are the Missouri, Des Moines, Arkansas, and Red Rivers. At the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi, the light waters of the Mississippi and the dirty brown waters of the Missouri flow for many kilometers in the riverbed. Smaller right tributaries are the Minnesota, Zambro, Ruth-Turkey, Wopepinikon, Cedar, White River and others. All tributaries are full-flowing, they pour a huge amount of water into the Mississippi, turning it into a deep river.

Nutrition and river regime

The main type of river feeding is rain, snow feeding also occurs, and underground feeding plays a smaller role. Moist winds from the Gulf of Mexico come to the lower reaches of the river and bring a lot of precipitation. When these winds meet the cold polar air masses coming from the north, heavy downpours occur. Rainfall leads to a large increase in water levels on the Mississippi and its tributaries, causing severe flooding. The Mississippi floods in March–April and shallows in August–September.

The river experiences severe flooding in the spring due to active snowmelt in the Appalachian Mountains, where the Ohio River begins. The water in the Mississippi can rise so quickly that at a certain distance from the confluence of the Ohio it flows north, that is, against the current. In addition, the river bed quickly fills with water and it overflows its banks, flooding vast areas of the Mississippi and Mexican lowlands. The Missouri River also carries a huge amount of water into the Mississippi during the melting of snow and glaciers in the Cordillera.

Floods

People call the Mississippi the river of disasters. This river has experienced catastrophic floods many times. In 1882, writer Mark Twain witnessed a catastrophic flood. He wrote: “Water flooded all the lowlands from the city of Queiro to the mouth; it broke through dams at many points on both banks of the river; and in some places, to the south, where the water was at its highest, the width of the Mississippi reached up to seventy miles!” 70 miles corresponds to 112 km. In 1927, under the pressure of water, dams in the lower reaches of the river were broken in 200 places, and the flooded river valley resembled the sea. Floods during floods settlements, people are dying. So in the 20th century, the worst floods occurred in 1903, 1913, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1952. Because the river brings many disasters during floods, its people are an enemy who knows no mercy. The great American river basin remains a vast arena where the greatest human tragedies periodically play out.

Discovery of the river by Europeans

Which white man was the first to visit the Mississippi remains a mystery to this day. It is possible that the Normans visited here even before the second millennium AD. Of the later travelers, the names of H. Columbus, Gorai, and Pineda are mentioned. Pineda, for example, reported that he discovered big river and saw 40 cities on its banks. He gave this river the name Espirito Santo - “River of the Holy Spirit”. However, the discoverer of the Mississippi is the Spanish conquistador Hernan de Soto, who in 1539 came to the Florida Peninsula with nine ships and landed on it. After long wanderings around the south of the mainland, Hernan de Soto came to the banks of a huge river, so wide that on the opposite bank it was impossible to see a man standing at full height.

Life on the Mississippi

In the distant past, Indians lived on the banks of the Mississippi. They fished in the river and hunted in the forests growing on its banks. The river valley has fertile soils on which the Indians grew tobacco, cotton, corn, potatoes, beans, nuts, maple sugar, and many types of berries. The culture of cultivating these plants was used by the incoming white population, who subsequently ousted the Indians from these lands.