Over the past few million years the Mississippi has wandered
back and forth across Louisiana and its lower reachs. At this
location we can observe the process by which it happens and how man
has been trying to stop it.
The Mississippi has wandered all across Louisiana and this is
what has caused both the many bayous and the flat topography of the
state. Currently the river is wandering from east to west, where it
will eventually merge with the Atchafalaya River. The Atchafalaya
is a distributary of the Mississippi, meaning that it is a second
course of the same river. A simple way of putting this is that the
Atchafalaya is trying to capture the Mississippi and divert it into
its own flow. Ever since its creation the Army Corps of
Engineers has been trying to keep the Mississippi from completing
its tranfer. However, during the late 1800s they acidentally
removed a prehistoric log jam that had diverted the Red river into
the Mississippi. By doing this they had unknowingly sped up the
process. The Red River switched its course and started to flow in
to the Atchafalaya. The mississippi had shrunk and the atchafalaya
had grown. Another step they took to slow down the switch was to
build levees all along the land between the two rivers but these
are only a temporary repreive. However, no matter what steps the
Corps of Engineers take, the rivers keep getting ever closer and
closer to merging. in the works of Fred Bayley, the Chief Engineer
of the Lower Mississippi Valley Division of the Corp of Engineers,
"The more water the Atchafalaya takes, the bigger it gets; the
bigger it gets, the more water it takes." But why have the corps
been trying to prevent the switch, why not let nature take its
course? The answer is that when the switch happens it will be
sudden and violent. The Mississippi below where the switch happens
will completely dry up, any towns along the Atchafalaya will grow
so big so fast that all towns below the switch will be swept away,
causing millions in damage and loss of life.
To get credit for this earthcahe e-mail me the answers to the
following questions:
1. The GC code and name of this cache.
2. The number of people in your group.
3. What steps have been taken here to prevent the Mississippi from
spilling over here?
4. Does the Atchafalaya appear to be growing or shrinking?
5. What is the proof to your answer for question 4?
6. Does the Mississippi appear to be shrinking? Why?
7. **Optional** A picture of either of the rivers at the posted
coordinates.
Information from San Jose State
University.