Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the fourth longest river in the world at 2230 miles ( 3730 km). It spreads from 31 states in the United States to two provinces in Canada. It is the second longest river system in the US, starting from the river source at Northwestern Minnesota to the river mouth the Gulf Of Mexico.  

Historically, the Mississippi River came from Ojibwa and was named “Michi Sepe” which translated means Great River. The name was created by Lieutenant Henri De Tonti. Many native “American tribes have had faith in this river”. But today, the name of the river has formed into the Mississippi River. 

Presently, the river is used for many things such as amusement, mostly for water sports. Also the water in the Mississippi River is very important to some industrial residents in the nearby area because of the drinking water produced by the Mississippi River, it is very important that it is clean!  If you haven’t noticed, the Mississippi River looks pretty a like to a shipping port, many barges and ships dock and import many things such as agriculture and industrial goods. 

Recreation: The Mississippi River catches many people locally, and internationally, it is also famous for its recreational purposes. Many people go their to go on barges, steamboats or even go canoeing, it is most famous for water sports such as water-skiing. But there are many more different things, it is not just all about water! Its about nature! There are many national parks, nature trials. 

Issues or Problems: It is said that the Mississippi River has four major problems with pollution, bacteria pollution, nutrient pollution, toxic pollution and sediment pollution. A report from the 1990’s stated that there were many toxic pollution of organic and inorganic materials. Mostly referring to metals and heavy metals.  

Start of the River: Mississippi River goes through many states in the United States, and starts from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, New Orleans, Louisiana Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, Tennessee, Los Angeles, St. Paul and Baton Rouge and begins its flow to the Gulf of Mexico. One of its main tributaries is the Missouri River. Because of developed tributaries in the area, the water quality of the has changed the Mississippi and the Gulf Of Mexico. 

Up Stream:  The Mississippi River starting from its source to the confluence in the Ohio River. The Upper Mississippi River is divided into three parts: 

• The headwaters 493 miles (793 km) headwaters is the closest stream from the source. 
• Man made lakes 
• Middle of the Mississippi River

River Source: 

The river starts from Lake Itasca, Minnesota. Lake Itasca is also connected by some other smaller streams. The whole river has 41 dams in between lakes, confluences, etc. The most closest lock and dam is in Upper Saint. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. As the closer to a lock and dam, the elevation of a river gets drops inch by inch closer to sea level.  

Tributaries: The confluence of the Mississippi River is where the Mississippi and the Ohio River meet. And from the Ohio River and downwards towards the Gulf Of Mexico it is called the Lower Mississippi River. During the whole course of the Mississippi, it consists of 250 tributaries, a few major tributaries are: the White River in east central Arkansas. What is a opposite of a tributary? The opposite of a tributary is a distributary. A distributary is a branch of river that does not connect. And an example of that is: the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana.   

Water Shed: The Mississippi has the fourth largest drainage basin in this world. The drainage basin covers all over all 31 states and 2 provinces in Canada. The river basin then flows to the Gulf Of Mexico for about 100 miles. The Mississippi River drains the majority of the area from one side of the country to the other side.   

The river system for the Mississippi River down to the Gulf Of Mexico, including all 31 states. 

The Gulf Of Mexico is the ninth largest coverage of water in the world. The Gulf Of Mexico is landlocked and is surrounded by North America and Cuba. It is considered part of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The deepest part of the Gulf Of Mexico reaches up to 4384 meters deep. Due to the connection of the Gulf and the Atlantic, the Gulf has very small tidal ranges.  The Gulf receives water from 33 major lakes or rivers from 31 states across the US. It supports many fishing and shipping companies. The reason why it supports many fishing companies is because: the outer border of the Gulf the Florida and the Yucatan receive more cooler water which gets rich quality nutrients by a process known as upwelling, which increases plankton growth, which then attracts more sea creatures such as fish, squid, crabs etc. It is also one of the warmest bodies of water in the world. 

What is the connection between the Gulf Of Mexico and Mississippi River? The connection between both the Mississippi and the Gulf is, the Mississippi’s river water flow down to the river mouth, which supposedly is a bigger stream of water e.g. lake, sea, ocean etc. So the Gulf Of Mexico is the river mouth for the Mississippi River, meaning that the water flows into the Gulf Of Mexico... 

Pollution: There major problems in the Gulf as you see on the Newspapers. Many oil spills have occurred in the vicinity. There are 27000 abandoned oil and gas wells hidden in the Gulf. Not just oil spills from the oil or gas wells, but also from shipping companies that have tonnes and tonnes  of oil on board and when either the ship explodes... Or the ship sinks... Or maybe even the oil just gets spilt. 

Works cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico