From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mississippi River
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|
Mississippi River basin
|
Etymology
| Ojibwe
word
misi-ziibi
, meaning "Great River", or
gichi-ziibi
, meaning "Big River"
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|
Country
| United States
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State
| Minnesota
,
Wisconsin
,
Iowa
,
Illinois
,
Missouri
,
Kentucky
,
Tennessee
,
Arkansas
,
Mississippi
,
Louisiana
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Cities
| Saint Cloud, MN
,
Minneapolis, MN
,
St. Paul, MN
,
La Crosse, WI
,
Quad Cities, IA/IL
,
St. Louis, MO
,
Memphis, TN
,
Baton Rouge, LA
,
New Orleans, LA
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|
|
Source
| Lake Itasca
[1]
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- location
| Itasca State Park
,
Clearwater County
,
MN
|
---|
- coordinates
| 47°14′23″N
95°12′27″W
/
47.23972°N 95.20750°W
/
47.23972; -95.20750
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- elevation
| 1,475 ft (450 m)
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|
Mouth
| Gulf of Mexico
|
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- location
| Pilottown
,
Plaquemines Parish
,
LA
|
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- coordinates
| 29°09′04″N
89°15′12″W
/
29.15111°N 89.25333°W
/
29.15111; -89.25333
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- elevation
| 0 ft (0 m)
|
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Length
| 2,320 mi (3,730 km)
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Basin size
| 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km
2
)
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|
Discharge
|
|
---|
- location
| mouth; max and min at
Baton Rouge, LA
[2]
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- average
| 593,000 cu ft/s (16,800 m
3
/s)
[2]
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---|
- minimum
| 159,000 cu ft/s (4,500 m
3
/s)
|
---|
- maximum
| 3,065,000 cu ft/s (86,800 m
3
/s)
|
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|
|
Discharge
|
|
---|
- location
| St. Louis
[3]
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---|
- average
| 168,000 cu ft/s (4,800 m
3
/s)
[3]
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|
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Tributaries
|
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- left
| St. Croix River
,
Wisconsin River
,
Rock River
,
Illinois River
,
Kaskaskia River
,
Ohio River
|
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- right
| Minnesota River
,
Des Moines River
,
Missouri River
,
White River
,
Arkansas River
|
---|
The
Mississippi River
is a
river
in the
United States
. It is the 11th longest river in the world. Its largest city is
Memphis, Tennessee
.
The name "Mississippi" comes from a
Native American
name that means "big river". The source of the Mississippi is
Lake Itasca
in
Minnesota
, near the border with
Canada
. The Mississippi flows south through the middle of the
United States
. It flows through the
states
of Minnesota,
Wisconsin
,
Iowa
,
Illinois
,
Missouri
,
Kentucky
,
Tennessee
,
Arkansas
, and
Mississippi
. The mouth of the Mississippi is in the state of
Louisiana
, south of the city of
New Orleans
. The Mississippi flows into the
Gulf of Mexico
.
At the end of the Mississippi there is a
zone
in the
Gulf of Mexico
where very few
animals
can survive comfortably because of the
fertilizer
and other
chemicals
that run off of farms into the river and its tributaries. The rivers then carry them into the
gulf
.
[4]
The Mississippi has been very important for transportation in the
history
of the United States. In the 1800s, many
steamboats
traveled on the Mississippi River.
St. Louis, Missouri
,
Memphis, Tennessee
, and New Orleans were important
port cities
.
The Mississippi has many large
tributaries
, or
rivers
that flow into it. The
watershed
of the Mississippi covers much of the United States. This means that the Mississippi and its tributaries drain much of the United States.
Some important tributaries of the Mississippi are (listed from the source to the mouth of the river):
A big part of the book
Huckleberry Finn
by
Mark Twain
is set on the Mississippi River. Twain also wrote a book called
Life on the Mississippi
, which had some stories about how he used to work on a steamboat.
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International
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National
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Other
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