Above and Beyond: Mississippi River Flooding, 2011

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

·       Illustration of northwestern U.S. based on illustration from NOVA/WGBH “Mystery of the Megaflood” website

·       Glacial Lake Missoula painting courtesy of Byron Pickering

·       Dry Falls photo ©2004 Teri J. Pieper, www.byways.org

·       Palouse Hills photo courtesy of Lynn Suckow

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Photos of Mississippi River with debris courtesy of Thomas R. Machnitzki

·       Video of clouds over eastern U.S. courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

·       Snow-to-rain animation by Marc Lussier, STScI

·       Satellite images of flooding in Birds Point–New Madrid Floodway courtesy of MODIS Today,

·       Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

·       Morganza Spillway video and photos courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

·       Photo of Mississippi River sediment plume entering Gulf of Mexico courtesy of Nancy Rabalais/Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

·       Algae bloom photo courtesy of National Ocean Service/NOAA

·       Photo of fish kill on Grand Isle, Louisiana, courtesy of Kerry St. Pé

·       Mississippi River dead zone animation courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

·       Photo of flooded farm near Vicksburg, Mississippi, courtesy of the National Weather Service

·       Map of Mississippi River course changes courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

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An aerial features the Yazoo River, Vicksburg, Mississippi River. Text, Lingering Floodwaters near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Mississippi River is the longest continuous waterway in the United States.

 

It wanders more than 2,300 miles from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Old bends or meanders in the river from oxbow lakes as the Mississippi changes its flow pattern.

 

On May 19, 2011, the Mississippi River reached a historic 57.1-foot crest.

 

This satellite image was captured on June 11, 2011, when water levels around Vicksburg had already begun receding but we're still above normal.

 

Standing water is most apparent in the floodplain between the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers north of Vicksburg.