Large right and left tributaries of the Mississippi River. Mississippi river - "great river"

Mississippi river- the world's first deceiver, this is what the famous writer Mark Twain called the river. The river received this name due to its wayward nature of the flow. In the lower course, closer to the mouth, the river winds along the plain as it pleases. In just one spring, it can become either shorter or longer, changing its course, and with it the fate of people who dared to settle on its troubled shores. The very word Mississippi, translated from the language of the Ojivbe Indians, means “ great river". The Indians here clearly did not show originality.

The Great Flood of 1927 is reflected in a song by Led Zeppelin called "When the Levee Breaks". By the way, I propose to listen to it, so to speak, for the mood. I think this will help you better understand the upcoming story.

River length: 5 985 km.

Drainage basin area: 3,220,000 sq. km.

Flow direction: mainly from north to south.

Where it proceeds: The Mississippi is the main river and communication artery in North America... The river originates from Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The height of the source above sea level is 1575 meters. The section from the source to the confluence of the Ohio River is called the Upper Mississippi. Further, downstream, the Lower Mississippi begins, respectively.

On the way to Minneapolis lies the beautiful St. Anthony Falls. The navigable part of the river begins behind it. Here the relief changes to flat. The Mississippi flows slowly from north to south, spilling over a wide valley until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, 160 kilometers south of New Orleans.

The path of the river is clearly visible on political map USA. Flowing through 10 states, it is at the same time natural boundary for most of them. If we take into account and main tributary- Missouri, the river basin already covers 31 states. It is cut from the Appalachians in the east, to the Rocky Mountains in the west and to the Canadian border in the north. It is the fourth longest river system in the world.

At its mouth, the Mississippi forms a large delta 300 km wide and 31,860 sq. km. Most of it is occupied by swamps and lakes. A large number of sandy shoals were a strong obstacle to the development of shipping. Plus, devastating floods often occur on the river. The construction of dams and deepening of the channel partially solved the problem. But, as always happens, they caused other problems. Deepening of the channel has led to the fact that the river has lost some of its natural meanders and shoals. And the construction of dams does not allow the river to supply the adjacent territories with fertile silt. It also led to a decrease in the growth rate of the delta, which throughout history has steadily increased, cutting deeply into the Gulf of Mexico.

Main tributaries: on the right - Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River; left - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio.

Feature, Mississippi River Regime

Average water consumption in the river is 12,743 m3 / s.

Freezing: does not freeze in the lower reaches. In the upper part, freeze-up lasts 3-4 months.

Nutrition: the river receives most of its water from melting snow and rainfall. At the same time, it is noteworthy that the right tributaries bring mainly water formed by melting snow in the Rocky Mountains, and the left ones, on the contrary, mainly feed the river with rain and storm waters. The Mississippi regime is characterized by spring-summer floods, as well as rainfall floods. Floods can gain just the same catastrophic proportions, which has happened more than once when the melting of snow in the Mississippi and Missouri basins coincides with heavy rains in the Ohio River basin. In this situation, severe floods occur in the middle and lower reaches. During such catastrophic floods, water consumption can increase up to 50-80 thousand m3 / sec.

Interesting Facts:

1) After the clay-yellow Missouri waters flow into the bluish Mississippi River, their waters flow separately for another 40 km. In the Cairo area, history repeats itself again when the bright Ohio River flows into the already cloudy waters of the Mississippi. And, which is already quite incredible, but it happens again, but already in the ocean. As satellite imagery shows, the Mississippi does not end once it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Her fresh water without mixing with the sea, they go around the Florida peninsula and, getting into the Gulf Stream, turn to the north. It is only at the latitude of Georgia that river water finally dissolves into the salty ocean.

2) In literature, the name of the Writer Mark Twain is most closely associated with the river, who described travels and adventures on it in his famous work "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

3) The Mississippi River is the cradle of jazz. It was on its shores in New Orleans that the great jazzman Louis Armstrong was born.

4) The 19th century is considered the golden age of the river. It was then that river steamers cruised along it in full. Now this tradition is reviving, but the steamers are now used mainly for tourist purposes.

1985 video film: "Mississippi - Ally and Enemy":

Also: Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

And one more song to close: "The Road to the Mississippi."

The Mississippi is one of the greatest rivers on our planet. Famous writer Mark Twain compared her to the world's first deceiver. The Mississippi got this name because of the wayward nature of the current.

Near the very mouth, on the territory of the lower course, the river meanders as it pleases along the plain. In the spring, it can correct its length either to a larger or smaller side, changing the channel. At the same time, it is difficult for those people who dared to settle on its changing banks. The very name of the Mississippi in translation from the Indian means "great river".

Where does it take

Mississippi is a river that is the main communication water artery North America. It originates in the source of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca, located at an altitude of 1575 m above sea level. The river is divided into two sections. The Upper Mississippi is located from its source to its confluence. Further - the territory of the Lower Mississippi.

After the beautiful waterfall of St. Antonio, the river becomes navigable. In this zone, the relief of the channel changes to a flat one. The Mississippi is a river that carries its waters slowly downstream. It literally spills over a wide plain. The direction of the Mississippi River is from north to south. It can be clearly seen on the political map; it flows through ten states and serves as a natural border for many of them. If we take into account the main tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri, then the basin of the great river covers thirty-one states of America. On the map, the blue thread of the water surface is bounded by the Rocky Mountains in the west, the Appalachians in the east, and the Canadian border in the north. In terms of its length, this river system ranks fourth on our planet.

The mouth of the great waterway

Where does the Mississippi River flow? To the Gulf of Mexico. The mouth of the Mississippi River is located slightly south (one hundred and sixty kilometers) of New Orleans.

At the confluence of the Mississippi with the Gulf of Mexico, the river forms a fairly large delta, the territory of which is located on an area of ​​31,860 square kilometers. In this case, the width of the specified zone is 300 km. Most of the delta is an area occupied by lakes and marshes. Navigation at the confluence of the Mississippi with the Gulf of Mexico is extremely difficult.
Traffic is hampered by numerous sandbanks and frequent destructive floods. The construction of dams made it possible to partially solve this problem. However, this led to the fact that the river stopped supplying the adjacent territories with silt important for fertility and reduced the growth rate of the delta, which had been preserved throughout the entire history of its existence.

Tributaries

The largest river flowing into the Mississippi is the Missouri. Its source is located in the place where the confluence of three rivers occurs. One of them is Jefferson.

North America has the longest aquatic system in its territory. It is formed by the Mississippi, the Missouri River, and Jefferson. The channels of these waterways are quite long. Distance from the head of the Jefferson River to the mouth great Mississippi is six thousand three hundred kilometers. Missouri is the right tributary of the longest waterway in North America.

The second largest river flowing into the Mississippi is Arkansas. She is her right tributary. The deepest river that flows into the Mississippi is Ohio (it is its left tributary).

Others can be found on the map of America. large rivers that flow into the Mississippi. So, its right tributaries are the Red River and Minnesota, and its left tributaries are Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin.

Water regime and characteristics of the pool

The Mississippi is a river with a length of three thousand nine hundred and fifty kilometers. If this value is calculated from the headwaters of Missouri, then the value will be increased to 6420 km. The area of ​​the Mississippi basin is three thousand two hundred and sixty-eight square kilometers. This figure is equal to forty percent of the total area of ​​the United States (excluding Alaska). The average in Mississippi is twelve thousand seven hundred and forty-three cubic meters per second. In its lower course, the great river never freezes. In the upper one, freeze-up lasts for three to four months throughout the year.

Channel characteristics

In its upper reaches, the great river of America flows through small lakes. Descriptions of the Mississippi River indicate the presence of rapids as well as rocky rifts. The most significant of them are located at the St. Anthony Falls, near the city of Minneapolis. They also have the settlements of Kyokak and Davenport.

The riverbed from Minneapolis to the very mouth of the Missouri is locked. More than twenty dams have been built on it.

The Mississippi in its middle section is somewhat different. Here the waters pass mainly along one channel, the width of which is ten to fifteen meters. In the middle section, steep slopes approach the river waters.

After the Missouri flows into the channel, turbid water dirty brown color. For one hundred fifty to one hundred and eighty kilometers, this stream is adjacent to a relatively clean waters Mississippi.

The lower section of the river carries its waters majestically over a wide plain, the soils of which are composed of alluvial deposits. The channel in these places is winding. It possesses large quantity sleeves and oxbows. Where the Mississippi River calmly carries its waters over a vast plain, a whole labyrinth of channels is formed. There are many floodplain bogs and oxbow lakes, which flood the surrounding area during floods.

Almost the entire section of the channel is naturally bordered by coastal ramparts. For flood protection, they are reinforced with a system of artificial dams with a total length of over four thousand kilometers. The river flows between the shafts. In some places the upper surface of the water exceeds the level of the floodplain surface.

A little below the city of Baton Rouge, the lobular delta of the river originates. It occupies a fairly large area (almost 32 thousand square kilometers).

The bed of the Mississippi at the end of the delta is branched into six short arms ranging in length from thirty to forty kilometers. They flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The main of these sleeves is called the South West Pass. This is the southwestern branch of the Mississippi, which allows more than thirty percent of the total flow into the bay.

During floods, the water level rises sharply. They are partially discharged into Lake Pontchartrain, which is located near New Orleans. The rest falls into the Alchafalaya River, which runs parallel to the Mississippi and also flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Nutrition

The river receives most of its water from precipitation and melting snow. It is noteworthy that at the same time the right tributaries make a big contribution to the nutrition of the Mississippi. These rivers are formed by the melting snow found in the Rocky Mountains. The right tributaries feed the Mississippi, as a rule, with storm and rainwater.

Floods

Character water regime the river is associated with spring-summer floods. Contribute and heavy showers... Floods sometimes become catastrophic. This happens when snow melt in the Missouri and Mississippi Basins coincides with rainfall in the Ohio Basin.

In such cases, severe floods are observed in the lower and middle reaches of the great river. During such floods, the flow rate in the channel increases to fifty to eighty thousand cubic meters per second. Hydraulic structures built in the lower reaches are not able to fully protect the fields and settlements from the flood.

Water artery

Mississippi is a convenient route to central regions North America from the Gulf of Mexico. The Great River is the most important transport artery in the United States and connects the developed agricultural and industrial regions of the country.

As a waterway, the Mississippi became less significant during a period of intense competition from railways in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, with the development of the region, the importance of the Mississippi increased again.

At present, the total length of navigable routes is twenty-five thousand kilometers. In the lower part of the Mississippi, cargo turnover reaches seven million tons during the year. The main cargoes are chemicals and Construction Materials, petroleum products and coal.

V fiction Mississippi is associated with the name of Mark Twain. He described the journey along the river in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The Mississippi is considered the cradle of jazz. It was in New Orleans, located on its banks, that the famous jazzman was born, whose name is Louis Armstrong.

The nineteenth was the golden age for the river. During this period, numerous river steamers sailed on the Mississippi. A long tradition is being revived now. However, steamboats today are usually used for tourist purposes.

Where is the Mississippi River, the largest in North America and the United States, its source and mouth, what is its length and significance for the state? Development history and Interesting Facts about this waterway will be useful for tourists, schoolchildren and curious people.

Geographic details and name

The Mississippi is the "greatest river" in the United States, the third longest in the world (3950 km, together with the Missouri - 6420 km). It flows through the territory of 10 states, being at the same time the border between many of them. It is conventionally divided into 2 parts:

• Upper - from Lake Itasca, located on the territory National Reserve(Minnesota) at an altitude of 450 m, where the source of the Mississippi River is located, to the place where the river flows into it. Ohio.
• Lower - from Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. This is exactly where the mouth of the Mississippi River is and where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Its largest tributaries are Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Day Moines (left) and Red River (right), of which Missouri is considered one of the largest on the planet. The name of the river was given by the local Indians of the Ojibwe tribe living in the Great Lakes region. The literal translation of the words misi-ziibi means "great river".

History of discovery and development

The first among Europeans who was lucky enough to see this river was the conquistador from Spain Hernando de Soto, who crossed it in 1541. According to other sources, the Mississippi was drawn on the Spanish map in 1518, after the expedition entered the delta. Its name in Spanish sounded like "the river of the holy spirit."

It was first explored by French travelers in 1681-1682, one of whom, R. de la Sal, was able to sail along it from start to finish. After that, France declared all the lands included in the lowlands, their own possessions and gave them the name "Louisiana". Given the length and vastness of the Mississippi River, it quickly became an important waterway for the French to ferry necessary goods and people on barges.

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was concluded, according to which the territory to the east of the mouth was transferred to England, and to the west - to Spain. In 1800, the Spanish part of Louisiana was bought by France, which resold it to the United States. In 1815, America was able to annex the British part of it after the Battle of New Orleans. So, answering the question of which country and where the Mississippi River is located, it would be correct to name the United States.

Mississippi River shipping

The flowering of shipping on the Mississippi began in 1811, when the first paddle steamer was launched on the river, which transported goods between the cities of New Orleans and Ohio. Gradually, the number of steamers increased, and the river turned into the busiest waterway of the entire continent. According to statistics, by 1850, 5 thousand passenger and cargo steamships were running along the river, and 6 years later the first bridge was built, across which Railway.

With the advent of the bridge from Rock Island to Davenport, which began to interfere with steamship traffic, problems began with lawsuits... Then there was a case when one of the sailing ships rammed one of the parts of the bridge, and a fire started. The proceedings turned into a long struggle and gradually led to a decrease in the number of water transport. By 1910, only 560 steamboats were already sailing on the Mississippi, but the transportation of heavy goods by water turned out to be more profitable than rail, and the river remains an important transport artery of the United States.

Mississippi river system

The territory where the Mississippi River is located, together with its tributaries, covers 31 states and forms a huge water basin area of ​​3270 sq. km (40% of the entire US territory, excluding Alaska). In the upper half, the river flows through large lakes, forming rapids in some places. From Minneapolis were built locks (more than 20), in the middle of the Mississippi flows in a wide channel (floodplain - up to 15 km).

The delta of the greatest river in North America covers an area of ​​32 thousand square meters. km and moves into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It is divided into 6 large branches that flow into the bay. Due to the fact that the beginning of the Mississippi is located in the Rocky Mountains, in winter time most of the river is covered with ice.

The length of the shipping lanes in river system equals 25 thousand km. The largest port cities: Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Davenport.

The economic significance of the river

Modern shipping on the Mississippi is highly developed and diverse. Up to 300 million tons of cargo is transported annually along the river: oil reserves, coal, products of the chemical and agricultural industries. The river provides 16% of all fish products in the United States: fish, shrimp, crayfish and oysters. Rice, cotton, sugarcane and soybean plantations thrive in the Mississippi Delta and where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

• Many beautiful bridges have been built across the river; there are 7 national parks on the banks. Now they are attractions that tourists enjoy visiting when going on a trip to the Mississippi.
• The name of the river is inextricably linked with the work of the writer Mark Twain, who populated his books with heroes who live and work on it. The author even took his literary pseudonym from the vocabulary of river workers who measured the depth of the fairway. Literally it translates as "mark two."
• At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Mississippi became the cradle of American jazz: tourist steamers sailed on it, on board which an orchestra always played, including with the participation of the famous Louis Armstrong.

Mississippi - in the language of the local Indians - big river, a river in the USA, one of the greatest rivers in the world. It is believed to have been discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1541 and rediscovered by Jacques Marquette and Louis Jollier in 1673 as they descended the Wisconsin River to its mouth. Legend claims that the local Indians convinced the researchers not to move on, because there they are waiting for inevitable death from river demons and giant fish... Mark Twain suggested that the Indians meant, in particular, paddlefish ( large fish more than two meters long and weighing more than fifty kilograms).

The length of the river is 3950 km (from the source of the Missouri - 6420 km), the basin area stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, 3268 thousand square kilometers. This makes up forty percent of the area of ​​the United States, excluding Alaska.

The largest right tributaries are Minnesota, Des Moines, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River; left - Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio. The Mississippi originates in the north of the country, the source of Nicolette Creek, crosses the territory of the United States from north to south and flows into the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vast delta. The Mississippi Valley is developed in the direction of the main flow of the waters of the Quaternary glaciation of North America.

The Mississippi carries out to the sea an average of about 360 million tons of sediment per year. At the end of the delta, the river branches into six main relatively short branches, 20-40 km long, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Chief among these is the South West Pass (southwest arm).

The river is fed by mixed snow and rain. The Mississippi regime is characterized by spring and summer floods. Flash floods are formed when the periods of snowmelt in the Upper Mississippi Basin and in the Missouri Basin coincide with heavy rainfall. Especially catastrophic floods in the Mississippi basin were observed in 1844, 1903, 1913, 1927, 1937, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1965.

Mississippi - comfortable waterway from the Gulf of Mexico to the central parts of the mainland. The most important transportation artery of the United States, connecting developed industrial areas with agricultural areas of the country.

River navigation is carried out to the city of Saint - Paul (for more than three thousand kilometers), ocean vessels rise to the city of Baton Rouge. The length of the navigable routes in the entire Mississippi-Missouri system is more than 25 thousand km.

The Mississippi is the greatest river not only in America, but in the whole world. Only in length from the source to the delta is it inferior to the Nile. Its length, together with the main tributary, the Missouri, is 6215 kilometers. In terms of its pool, it surpasses even the Nile. The Mississippi basin - an area of ​​3248 thousand square kilometers! Although in this it is surpassed by the other greatest river in America, it is true, the South - the Amazon. Large and small rivers flow into the Mississippi from the ancient wooded Appalachian mountains and from the highest rocky ridges of the Cordilleras; the expanse from the Great Lakes in the north to the blue expanses of the Gulf of Mexico in the south is the entire Mississippi Basin.

If you look at the map, you will see that the Mississippi, with all its tributaries, is similar to giant tree with a widely spread and branched crown. About half of the country's population lives on the banks of the river and its tributaries.

The river is fed mainly due to the favorable snow and rain regime. Generally due to different climatic conditions the eastern and western parts of the river basin differ in water features... Right tributaries descend and flow - from the Rocky Mountains through the arid territories. That is why, even after the merger with Missouri, the Mississippi remains relatively dry. It becomes a large river only after the confluence with the Ohio River. Downstream of the Ohio confluence, the Mississippi increases the flow rate by 1.5 times. That is why the downstream regime is largely determined by the regime of the Ohio River. If the period of snowmelt in the Appalachians coincides with the maximum precipitation, then the level of the river in Ohio rises by 15 - 20 meters, in the lower Mississippi - by 5 - 6 meters. And this leads to the flooding of a significant part of the floodplain.

In the language of the Indians, "Mississippi" means "big river", "father of waters." The Mississippi is the most abundant river in North America. It carries 2.5 times more water to the Gulf of Mexico than our Volga to the Caspian Sea.

In terms of its role in the life of the American people, the Mississippi is as important as the Volga is for the Russian people. No wonder the Indians who once lived on its shores called the Mississippi the father of waters. In the upper section, the river first flows through small lakes; there are rapids and rocky rifts, the most significant of them are located near the city. Minneapolis (St Anthony Falls), Davenport and Kyokak. From the city of Minneapolis the river bed is locked, to the mouth of the Missouri there are more than 20 dams. In the middle section, the river flows mainly in one channel; the valley 10-15 km wide is bounded by steep slopes. Below the confluence of the Missouri, the muddy, dirty-brown water of this river flows for 150-180 km next to the relatively transparent Mississippi stream. In the lower section, the river flows over a vast plain, composed of alluvial deposits, the width of the valley gradually increases downstream from 25 to 70-100 km; the riverbed is meandering, with numerous branches and oxbows, forming in the lower reaches a labyrinth of channels, oxbow lakes, vast floodplain bogs, flooded during floods. Almost throughout the entire section, the channel is bordered by natural bank embankments, fortified with a system of artificial dams (with a total length of over 4 thousand km) to protect against floods; the river flows between the ramparts in places above the surface of the floodplain. Below Baton Rouge, a lobed river delta begins, occupying an area of ​​about 32 thousand km2, advancing in the sea in places by 85-100 m per year.

The Mississippi wanders for a long time among forests, lakes and swamps, then crosses a high plateau, goes out onto a spacious fertile lowland created by its own sediments, and rolls its mighty waters along it to the Gulf of Mexico.

Previously, the Mississippi was widely spread over the lowlands, flooding the surroundings for tens of kilometers. Then people built high earthen dams and narrowed the width of the stream to 1 - 3 km. Dams now accompany the river and the channels of some of its tributaries for thousands of kilometers. When it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi forms one of the largest the globe an extensive fast-growing delta and the deposition of clastic material - pebbles, gravel, sand and others.

Yet the Mississippi and its tributaries Missouri and Ohio experience floods so severe that they are truly national disasters.

Now the prairies have been plowed up and the forests have been cleared. But what large areas freed from the forest, the less water in the rivers became, and its rises during floods became sharper, with frequent floods.

In addition, the lower Mississippi is in the path of "big storms" - warm, wet winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico. When warm air from the south, it meets cold air masses that have come here from the polar countries, there are showers and floods on the rivers.

Over the ten-year period, from 1940 to 1950, for example, about 100 floods occurred in the Mississippi Basin, five of which were particularly severe.

Powerful modern technology, a whole army of engineers and many years of experience in flood control have calmed the recalcitrant rivers. In the upper reaches of the Mississippi, before the confluence of the Missouri into it, sluices were built, creating a kind of staircase of 26 steps. Large steamers now sail here. From the Mississippi they can go to the Great Lakes system, and along the Hudson River to get to New York.

The Mississippi has become a busy highway - a large waterway connecting northern states countries with their vast fields and industrial areas and the southern states are the largest cotton growing area. Day and night steamers go up and down, huge caravans of barges, loaded with coal, iron, timber, grain, many industrial products and various products Agriculture... 3 thousand km - the length of the navigable part of the Mississippi, and if you take into account the tributaries, this figure will increase to 25 thousand km.

The life of individual strata of the population living on the banks of the great American river is taking shape in different ways. Workers work in factories, factories, mines, fields, build roads, houses, dams. Agricultural workers provide the population with food, and industrial enterprises- the necessary raw materials. However, the position of the worker and the farmer is very fragile: the former can be fired from his job by the capitalist, the latter can go bankrupt. Such a fate befell many. They make up a huge army of the unemployed, whose lot is poverty and hunger.

Negroes live many times worse. These people are humiliated racial discrimination... Negro movers, cotton pickers, bricklayers, and black laborers are working in the sweat of their brows on the banks of the Mississippi. Turning to the great river, they pour out their grief in sad songs: “O Mississippi, father of waters! Why don’t you see our suffering, why don’t you hear the groans of our wives and crying children? Why don't you know how hard it is for a black man to live on your shores? "

The best black singers sing for the whole world the folk song "Mississippi", in which endless sorrow and indignation is heard. The songs of the working people are heard more and more invitingly on the shores of the Mississippi. They call everyone to fight for a bright future, freedom and happiness. ordinary people the world - white, black, colored.

"Mississippi River" report, will tell you a lot in brief useful information about the deepest river in North America. Also, a report on the Mississippi will help prepare for the lesson and deepen your knowledge of geography.

Mississippi Post

Mississippi river is located in North America and is not only the deepest, but also the longest. Water body serves as a border for 10 US states. The Mississippi flows out of Lake Itasca and its path runs through forested wetlands. The largest tributaries of the river are Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Red River. The Mississippi Delta is dotted with swamps, shallow streams, artificial canals and lakes. The coastal system is determined by the flat character of the channel. It flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Who Discovered the Mississippi?

The official discoverer of the river is a conquistador named de Soto. It happened in 1541. But it is reliably known that the ships of Alonso Pineda entered the Mississippi Delta in 1519. Also in 1528, Panfilo Narvaesa visited here. Spanish visitors named it Rio del Espiritu Santo (River of the Holy Spirit). But this name did not catch on. Over time, large cities grew on its shores - St. Louis, Minneapolis, Memphis, New Orleans.

Nutrition of the Mississippi River

Mostly it feeds on precipitation and melt, snowy waters. Most of the water in the Mississippi comes from right-hand tributaries that feed on snow in the Rocky Mountains. Left tributaries are fed by storm and rainwater.

For big river spring-summer floods and rain floods are characteristic. Moreover, floods can be catastrophic. Severe floods occur in the middle and lower reaches. In the twentieth century, this happened twice: in 1927 and 1993.

Satellite studies of the river have shown that it does not stop flowing after entering the Gulf of Mexico. Its fresh waters with sea ​​water mixed, the river bends around Florida, the Gulf Stream and turns north. Only at the latitude of Georgia do they mix with ocean water.

• The first bridge over the river was built in 1855.
• On its banks is the Effidji Mounds sacred site and national monument. There are 200 Native American mounds here, some of which are animal-shaped.
• Wineries across the states are located along the river. They were named the River Hills Wine Tropics.
• Mississippi Mentioned by Writer Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The river is considered the cradle of jazz. Jazzman Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans.
• Mississippi's golden age is the 19th century. Then a lot of steamers cruised along it.

We hope that the Mississippi talk helped you prepare for the lesson. And you can add a story about the Mississippi through the comment form below.