page_title: Mississippi River Delta
hierarchical_section_title: Mississippi River Delta
caption_attribution_description: Mississippi River Delta from space. This image was acquired on May 24, 2001 by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the Mississippi River Delta in 2005.
context_page_description: The Mississippi River Delta is the river delta at the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico, in Louisiana in the southeastern United States. It is a three-million-acre area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast. It is part of the American Mediterranean Sea and the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States. The Mississippi River Delta is the 7th largest river delta on Earth and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7 million acres of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S. The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin and drains about 41% of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second.
context_section_description: The Mississippi River Delta is the river delta at the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico, in Louisiana in the southeastern United States.  It is a three-million-acre (4,700 sq mi; 12,000 km²) area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast. It is part of the American Mediterranean Sea and the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States. The Mississippi River Delta is the 7th largest river delta on Earth (USGS) and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7 million acres (4,200 sq mi; 11,000 km²) of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S. The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin and drains about 41% of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second (3,500,000 US gal/s; 13,000,000 L/s).
caption: 2001 Image of the active delta front before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the delta in 2005
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