Mississippi River Delta

Happy Birthday Mississippi — Today's your b-day (197 years young). On this date in 1817, you became the 20th state in the Nation. While there's "humpback humpback eyes" in this photo, we know there's plenty of wildlife for us to dote upon. This is an aerial view of subsiding marshes in the Mississippi River Delta. This region contains vast areas of marshes, swamps, and barrier islands—important habitat for wildlife, as nursery grounds for marine life, and as protective buffers against storms and hurricanes. Unfortunately, rapid land subsidence due to sediment compaction and dewatering increases the rate of submergence in this deltaic system. Photo credit: Karen McKee, USGS.