Does a Monster Flood Have to Fuel a Monster Dead Zone Too? | Mother Jones

Sediment-laden water pours into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. Credit: Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Team.

As you can see from the image above, a lot more than water comes down a river. The Mississippi and its distributary, the Atchafalaya River, carry an average of 230 million tons of soil into the Gulf of Mexico every year. On flood years, the total runs a lot higher.

That's going to cause downstream problems this year... all the way downstream to the ocean. But before we go there, let's take a quick look at how the system works.

Credit: USGS.

The graphic above shows sediment concentration and sediment discharge for major US rivers. The giant half-circle in the Gulf represents the Mississippi/Atchafalaya discharge. Why are the two rivers bundled together? Because they're really the [...]

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Crossposted from Deep Blue Home.

Full article at motherjones.com

 

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