Athena Review Image Archive ™
Rivers Seen From Space: The Mississippi River Delta
The Mississippi River Delta (NASA/JPL SIR-C image)
This radar image of the Mississippi Delta taken from the Space Shuttle Endeavor
on Oct. 2, 1994 shows an area of 63 by 43 km. where the Mississippi
(largest river in North America) flows south and enters the Gulf
of Mexico. North is toward the upper right of the view, whose center is
at 29.3 North Latitude, and 89.28 West Longitude.
As the river
meets the Gulf, it loses velocity and dumps its sediment in an
expanding fan-shaped, or roughly triangular-shaped zone called a delta
(named for the Greek letter shaped like a triangle). The specific form
at the outer mouth of the Mississippi where its distributaries spread
out and sediments expand into the sea is also sometimes known as a
"bird's foot delta." The river's currents are notably strong to create
this deltaic configuration. The accumulation of sediment is
ever-changing, and the Mississippi's primary channel shifts frequently
around in the delta.
The current main shipping channel is the
vertical stripe at left center, which contains numerous ships visible
as white spots. The surrounding areas consist of coastal
mudflats, marshes, and tidal pools.
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