The Effect of Sediments on the Direction of the Flow of the Mississippi River

    The Mississippi River is the third largest river in the world.  Needless to say, there is a large amount of water flowing through it.  In a good year, it can be shown that more than two million cubic feet of water passes by a given spot in one second.  That is over sixty-five kilotons a second.  With the flow of water through a river, sediments such as sand and salt are carried by the water.  If the water flows at a fast pace the sediments are not that big of a deal.  But if the river flows at a pace slower than normal, the sediments could build up along the floor of the river, opening the way to future floods and other such problems.

    The basic goal of the Mississippi is to reach the Gulf of Mexico using the shortest route possible with the steepest gradient.  When the sediments flow down to the mouth of the river they are deposited at the end.  The sediments that are deposited help to lengthen the river.  When the river becomes longer the mouth moves southward, which causes the gradient to decline.  This causes the river to flow at a slower pace, and like I said before this makes the sediments being carried by the water to become deposited along the bottom of the bed.  When these sediments build up to a certain point, the river will spill over to one side or the other.

    From this information we can gather the various components and variables that are being observed in this aspect of the Mississippi River:

The next couple of pages contain the flow charts and graphs of the information presented above.

 Flow Charts     Home