Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-09
MISSISSIPPI AS
A LAND BUILDER
Father Of Rivers" Constructs
With Mud 800 Feet
Each Year.

The territory within a mile or TWO
of each of the mouths of the Missis-
sippi is characterized by large SWELL
ings or upheavals of tough BLUSH
gray clay, to which has been applied
the name mud Jumps Many of
these mud Jumps rise just off shore,
and form islands having a surface
extent of an acre or more, and
height of eight or ten feet; but some
do not reach the water surface. These
mud Jumps, in addition to being of
Importance because of their effects
on the channels of the Mississippi
river, are also of considerable purely
scientific interest for their develop
ment is not included in the usual con-
ception of delta growth, and, although
several theories have been advanced,
their cause must still be regarded as
uncertain.
To an alert observer at the mouth
of the river, the idea that the region
is a great dumping ground for
large part of the United States iR
most important. The land is being
built out into the sea at an estimated
average rate of 800 feet a year, in
some places the rate is much more
rapid than in others. In one place in
Garden Island bay the land appears
to have advanced 1000 feet in the
spring of 1912.
The mud Jumps are commonly
twenty to thirty rods board and stand
twenty or thirty feet above the adj
jacent bottom. Their growth occupies
from few hours to several years,
and is usually irregular. Generally
q mud lump rises in few weeks or
months to a height of four or five feet
above the surface of the water Then
it remains quiet and is beaten down
by the waves in the course OF lew
years Many of them subside, now
ever, and some disappear over night.
Those that rise slowly are considerably
worn before they stop growing, Whlle
those that rise more rapidly and in
protected places are capped by laml-
mated silt having maximum thick
ness of ten feet.
The stories related by sailors and
pilots concerning the mode of growth
of the mud Jumps are fairly consist
ent. One man, however, states that
the growth of mud lump was &C
companied by q rather loud roar as
it rose above the water, and another
states that he once saw flashes OF
light rising from a mud lump; but
these statements are very different
from the great mass of testimony
concerning the Jumps, and it seems
probable that they are not based on
fact.
Among the most conspicuous and
impressive features OF the mud Jumps
are the mud springs that are active
on many if not all of them. The
discharge from these springs consists
OF salt, watery mud and gas-in fact,
gas escapes at many places on the
delta of the Mississippi, the vents ap-
pearing to be most numerous and
largest on and near the mud Jumps,
though the rate of flow rarely if
ever, exceeds a few cubic feet an
hour. Gas rises in bubbles in all the
mud springs, though the rate of issue
varies.
1t is considered by some scientists
that the mud Jumps are produced by
O. gentle .seaWard flow of layers of
seml-huid clay under the land and
the shallow water near the ends of
the passes. The mud humps appear
to be the product of the flow, because
in no other places have such thick
bodies of clay been found and the
fact that they occur almost exclu
sjvely near the ends of the passes and
that they are most active during and
after times of high water seems to
support this theory.
The United States geological survey
has issued report, entitled THE Mud
Jumps at the Mouth of the Missis-
sippi," by Eugene Wesley Shaw pro
fessional Paper So, Part b, copy
of which may be obtained free on APP
plication to the director of the survey,
Washington, ID. c.