Mississippi River Cruise

2. Learn Some History As the Birding Boat travels along the Mississippi, you will be able to see some historical structures. Historical features of the river will also be explained during the trip. ... [Read More]

USGS Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas Study Proposal - Task 1
The initial literature review is essential to establish what has been previously accomplished in regards to framework geology, geochemistry and Mississippi River work per se. This will help guide the organization of the workshop as well as the project, and will draw together experts from state, federal and academic institutions that have an active interest in the lower Mississippi River. Because there exist programs that are either already established (i.e., NASQAN) or still in preparation (such as Tulane's Mississippi Lower River Station, or the USGS Gulf of Mexico Initiative), the focus workshop of Task 1 will ensure that our proposed project will complement and extend these other programs, and will include relevant representation from other USGS divisions and other agencies/institutions. ... [Read More]

USGS Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas Study Proposal - Task 2
Unlike Bob Meade's seminal effort that dealt with the entire Mississippi River, we have decided not to sample the river as Lagranian flow; instead we will focus on discrete sampling stations down river over time (low/high discharge) that will enable both flux determinations to the Gulf, and also will provide insight into fluvial processes/mechanisms that can modify the delivery of sediment-hosted contaminants. It is important to note that Meade's study focused primarily on the delivery of dissolved constituents in one coherent water parcel from the head waters of the Mississippi River down to Louisiana. In contrast, the underlying premise of this proposed project is the role of suspended sediments and bed-load sediments in the delivery of contaminants to the Gulf. Sampling will augment the seasonal NASQAN data runs in the lower Mississippi River and will include the following stations that have historically been a part of NASQAN, but that are no longer sampled due to budgetary constrai ... [Read More]

Birding: The Birding Boat
The Birding Boat is an educational program sponsored by the Mississippi National River & Recreation Area in the Twin Cities. The cruise along the Mississippi is an enjoyable journey into the world of birds and nature. Find out what Birding Gear ...

Now in its fourth season, the Birding Boat welcomes bird watchers of all levels and ages to enjoy the bird species of the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities metro area. View the Birding Boat Calendar . ... [Read More]

USGS Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas Study Proposal - Task 6
As part of the effort for our contribution, "Use of remote-sensing satellites to monitor sediment plumes in the Mississippi Bight", to Task 6 of the USGS project, "Evaluating Basin/Shelf Effects in the Delivery of Sediment-Hosted Contaminants in the Lower Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers", during the March 2001 cruise to the Mississippi Bight (Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers) the USF remote sensing group extensively collected water samples at about 40 stations across the salinity transits from 0 to 28 psu. These samples have been analyzed for their optical properties, including particle absorption, chlorophyll concentration, Gelbstoff (or colored dissolved organic matter, CDOM) abundance, and total suspended solids (TSS). Preliminary results show that Gelbstoff absorption coefficient at 400 nm ranged from 0.5 to 4 m-1 while TSS concentration varied from 20 to 300 mg/L. Chlorophyll concentration is generally 2-10 mg/L in the sediment dominant waters. In contrast ... [Read More]

Cruise Report, G1-03-GM, USGS Gas Hydrates Cruise, R/V Gyre, 1-14 May, 2003, Northern Gulf of Mexico, USGS Open-File Report 03-474, Geologic Settings
The Gulf of Mexico has been classified as a small ocean basin (Menard, 1967), and the northern Gulf of Mexico consists of a wide shelf, shelf break, slope and rise morphology found on passive continental margins. The present physiography of the slope is dominated by salt tectonics, in which hummocky bathymetry is dominated by irregularly shaped salt withdrawal basins and the intervening structural highs that are often underlain by diapers (Bouma and Roberts, 1990; Winker and Booth, 2000). Terrigenous siliclastic deposition, dominated in the Pleistocene and Holocene by the Mississippi River, characterizes most of the basins and intra-basin settings (Winker and Booth, 2000). During its evolution, the Mississippi River depositional path variously followed the Alaminos, Keathley, and Mississippi Canyon pathways (Bryant and others, 1990). ... [Read More]

USGS Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas Study Proposal - Task 3
Trace constituents are useful to assess the degree of contamination, even in a river as large as the Mississippi River. Bob Meade's Mississippi River project and other studies have shown that almost all (>92%) of the trace element load in the Mississippi River is transported downstream in particulate form, either as suspended sediment or bed-load as a carrier of contaminants. Consequently, a successful sampling program must adequately address the role of particles. This approach necessitates some unusual techniques, in that suspended sediments must be isolated or de-watered and then entirely leached. Art Horowitz (USGS-WRD) has perfected this procedure, and the same methods will be utilized for this phase of the project. In addition to these sediment samples, dissolved samples will also be analyzed for the suite of NASQAN constituents. ... [Read More]

Delivery of Sediment-Associated Contaminants to the Gulf of Mexico
Unlike most other large rivers of the world, the Mississippi River is highly controlled or regulated. About a third of the total flow to the Mississippi River is diverted at the Old River Control Structure to form the Atchafalaya River. The construction of dams and reservoirs all along the Mississippi River has resulted in substantial decreases in total suspended-matter concentrations. The recent Missouri River flood of 1993 may also have effectively decreased total suspended-matter concentrations in the lower river in subsequent years, and such large flood events probably serve to periodically scour and flush out recently deposited riverbed sediment. ... [Read More]

History and Culture - Volume 2 - Draft Heritage Study and Environmental Assessment
But the Mississippi River was never tamed, as the levees failed to deter the river’s periodic onslaughts. After the great flood of 1927, other human-engineered elements became part of the river landscape, including riverbanks stabilized with mats of willows, revetments, mattresses of wire-linked concrete slabs, dikes, floodways, and cutoff channels. During the 1973 flood the river threatened to take the shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico via the Atachafalaya River, hut the Old River control structure, erected by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, held (barely). Twenty years later levees along the lower Missouri and Illinois segment of the lower Mississippi River Delta failed. Numerous farms and several farm villages such as Valmeyer, Illinois, have been relocated on higher ground since that disaster. The river is still the most significant, inspiring feature of the Lower Mississippi Delta region. ... [Read More]