Above and Beyond: Mississippi River Delta

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:

·       Celtic Monster illustration by John Dickson Batten

·       Phosphate mine photo courtesy of Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, Washington, North Carolina

·       Horicon Marsh photos and marsh wildlife photos courtesy of Andrea Gianopoulos

·       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

·       Assateague Island marsh photos courtesy of Lucy Albert

·       Muskrat photo courtesy of Dan Leveille

·       Peat fire photo courtesy of Guillermo Rein

·       Marsh algae photos courtesy of Andrea Gianopoulos

·       Close-up Lake Carnegie satellite image courtesy of the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch

·       Photos of Tigris River and drained Mesopotamian Marshes courtesy of Dr. Michelle Stevens, iraqmarshrestoration.blogspot.com

·       Photo of boatmen in an Iraqi marsh courtesy of Hassan Janali, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Mississippi River Delta, United States. The Mississippi River carbs its way through the heart of the North American continent before pouring into the Gulf of Mexico through the Louisiana wetlands.

 

(SPEECH)

[SOFT MUSIC, BIRDS CHIRPING]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

As the river enters the Gulf of Mexico, it loses energy and dumps its load of sediment.

 

Details of the delta. Text, This mud has accumulated over millions of years to build the delta.

 

Most of the land we see in this image consists of mud flats and marshlands.

 

The area holds little human settlement because the land is constantly changing.