Mississippi

The Mississippi itself is 3,778 km long together with the Missouri and Red Rock Rivers it is 6,051 km long. It is thus in the ranking of the longest rivers on earth in 4th place. The Mississippi is the longest river in the US and also North America. Its catchment area covers approximately one-third of the United States. In the USA, the Mississippi is often colloquially called the "Old Man River", immortalized above all in the aria 'Ol' Man River' from the Musical Show Boat.

Basic data:
Geographical location:	United States
Length:	6051 km (with Missouri, Red Rock River)
source lake:	Lake Itasca, Minnesota
estuary:	Gulf of Mexico (Atlantic Ocean)
source height:	450 meters
Discharge amount:	15,390 m³/s
Catchment area:	3,202,230 km²
Major Cities:	Minneapolis (Minnesota), St. Paul (Minnesota), St Louis (Missouri), Davenport (Iowa), Memphis, Tennessee, Baton Rouge (Louisiana), New Orleans (Louisiana)

Source and course of the river:

The Mississippi, unlike most major rivers, does not have major headwaters. It rises from Lake Itasca in the state of Minnesota as a five meter wide creek. The lake is about 450 m above sea level. Since by definition a spring lake cannot be a source, it is often a small stream that has its source at an altitude of 512 m has been regarded as a source of the Mississippi.

The Mississippi joins the Missouri and the Meramac at St. Louis and the Ohio in the state of Illinois. The river drains all of the area between the Rocky Mountains to the west and the Appalachian Mountains to the east, except the Great Lakes region.

The Mississippi flows through the ten US states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

As a dam river, the Mississippi enters the alluvial Mississippi plain from Cairo with a width of 1,370 m. Around 160 kilometers south of New Orleans, it flows into the Gulf of Mexico in the Mississippi Delta. His delta, that has five main arms, forms one of the largest estuaries in the United States. The estuary is the Mississippi Delta with 28,600 km² one of the world's largest deltas.

Traffic:

The Mississippi is an important transportation route. Maritime shipping reaches upriver to Baton Rouge, river navigation to Minneapolis-Saint Paul. The Mississippi connects to the Intracoastal Waterway and across the Illinois Waterway to the Great Lakes Region.

In the United States, the largest pushed convoys, with up to 40 barges, travel on the lower Mississippi River, but the barges are smaller than on the Rhine. They are 59 meters long and 10.6 meters wide, and have a lifting capacity of 1,500 tons. In the area of Around 17,000 barges are reported in Mississippi. The strongest push boat has over 10,000 hp.

Animal & Plant World:

The Mississippi provides shelter and food for many species of animals. This is where the bald eagle feels probably. Pelicans hunt for fish together. Hidden in the mud of the river, the large snapping turtles live on the river Lurk for fish and frogs.

On the upper reaches of the Mississippi, the beavers are thriving again, having been on the brink of extinction after intensive hunting had brought. Her fur was coveted. He was one of the mainsprings of the exploration and conquest of North America.

Environmental influences:

The use of fertilizers in conventional agriculture generates significant pollutant loads that lead to eutrophication and hypoxia in the Mississippi Delta. Because of the impact, the affected water area in the Gulf of Mexico is known as the Dead Zone. River-wide water quality standards were introduced in October 2002 and are monitored by the EPA.

Floods caused billions in damage in the middle of this year. Huge tracts of farmland in the farm state of Iowa were wiped out with entire crops. Many houses and farms have been destroyed. The flood also brought with it mud contaminated by fertilizer and other chemicals.

Residents:

Along the river are the largest agricultural zones in the United States, the Half of all US farms are located in Illinois' Mississippi River Basin. The state Iowa is a center of corn and soybean cultivation.

history:

From 700 to around 1600 the Mississippi high culture stretched along the Mississippi. She was an Indian culture hunting, fishing and farming. As the only Native American culture north of Mexico, the Mississippi culture built fortified cities, were the centers of power and hubs of the widely ramified trade network.

The first European to discover the Mississippi River on May 8, 1541 was Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. He gave the river that Name Rio de Espiritu Santo. In 1673, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette went on a major expedition down the Mississippi. The Frenchman René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was the first European to reach the estuary.

For a long time, the Mississippi was the western border of the European settled area in the USA. Native American tribes like the Cherokee migrated west across the river, the land west of the Mississippi was designated as reservation land indefinitely.

For a long time, the river was the country's most important transport route. He had both commercial and (during the American Civil War) a military meaning.

Mississippi

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