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Geology News
Mississippi Current Events

The largest flood on the lower Mississippi River since 1973 was measured on April 22 in Vicksburg, Mississippi by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flow measured 1.8 million cubic feet per second. That is enough water to fill more than 20 Olympic size swimming pools in one second, or more than 1.75 million pools in a day.

NOAA Image

Heavy rains on saturated ground have produced a lot of run-off in the Mississippi River Basin. The Chief of the Watershed Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that they might need to open some of the emergency channels.

Paleontologists have discovered what is thought to be the oldest primate fossil in North America. The creature, named Teilhardina magnoliana, is a distant relative of the modern-day tarsier. The finding has sparked debate on the geographic origin of the primates.

“A major wintertime tornado outbreak ripped through Arkansas, western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, and western Kentucky on February 5, 2008.” Earth Observatory has a precipitation map for the storms and details on why they happened.

USGS has a new section on the website titled “Differences in Phosphorus and Nitrogen Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin”. From the article: “Nine states in the Mississippi River Basin contribute the majority of nutrients to the Northern Gulf of Mexico, threatening the economic and ecological health of one of the nation’s largest and most productive fisheries.”

Midwestern farming increases the amount of water flowing into the Mississippi River and increases the amount of carbon dioxide carried in the water. How farming is done can significantly change the hydrology and chemistry of the Mississippi.

Take a look at this swatch from a county map of Mississippi. Is Leake County square? A letter to the staff of the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi asked this very question and after asking around they finally got a good answer from a GIS guy.

NASA Image

John Wilkerson lived in Bay St Louis, Mississippi before Katrina arrived. He travelled his community taking photos before the impact of the storm. Then he photographed the same areas immediately after, and now two years later. A lot of surprising photos of loss and some of recovery.

USGS Image

The Mississippi River and its delta have been heavily modified by human activity. This has long been understood but made more obvious by the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Now, people are starting to think about the river, how they have modified it, and what should be done to bring a balance between human activity and the river’s natural system.