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Mississippi River Delta: Land Subsidence and Coastal Erosion Open Journal of Soil Science, 2021, 11, 139-163 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojss ISSN Online: 2162-5379 ISSN Print: 2162-5360 Mississippi River Delta: Land Subsidence and Coastal Erosion Kenneth R. Olson , Cory D. Suski Department of Natural Resources, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA How to cite this paper: Olson, K.R. and Abstract Suski, C.D. (2021) Mississippi River Delta: Land Subsidence and Coastal Erosion. The Mississippi River Delta is a major center for transportation, industry, Open Journal of Soil Science, 11, 139-163. human population and ecosystem services. Critical areas included energy https://doi.org/10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 production, navigation, fisheries, flood protection of coastal communities, Received: February 4, 2021 and restoration of damaged habitats. Complex environmental management in Accepted: March 13, 2021 a great river system requires broad-base complex science, engineering and Published: March 16, 2021 monitoring. A major national and state objective has become the restoration of the Mississippi River Delta that is threatened by subsidence, flooding, Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and storm surges, compaction, oil extraction and gas extraction. The primary ob- Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative jectives of the paper are to document the landscape and geological properties Commons Attribution International of the Mississippi River Delta which have contributed to the successful re- License (CC BY 4.0). source and economic development of a historically-rich region of North http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ America and to document the natural resource and environmental risks to Open Access the Mississippi River Delta. Economic and urban development of the Missis- sippi River Delta by the oil and gas industry and creation of levees by the USACE has contributed to land subsidence problems. Environmental chal- lenges include land subsidence as a result of the pumping of vast amounts of oil and gas, the lack of sediment deposition in the Mississippi River Delta as a result of a system of levees, coastal erosion impacts of hurricanes, disposal of untreated and treated wastewater, periodic flooding and water pollution. Keywords Atchafalaya River Basin, Fisheries, Hurricane Katina, Oil and Gas Industry, Sedimentation 1. Introduction The Mississippi River’s major deltaic cycle began approximately 7000 years ago. The modern Mississippi River Delta was formed as the Mississippi River depo- DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 Mar. 16, 2021 139 Open Journal of Soil Science K. R. Olson, C. D. Suski sited clay, silt and sand along its banks and in adjacent basins. The Mississippi River Delta is a river-dominated delta system fed by the greatest river and tribu- tary system in North America. The current bird foot-shaped delta (Figure 1) re- flects the dominance of the river over other geologic and hydrologic processes. Before the levee system was completed in 1926, the Mississippi River avulsed its course every 1000 to 1500 years to find another and usually a shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 2). Starting with early 1700s European settlement, hu- mans have struggled with the delta’s natural cycle of floods, transgression and progradation [1]. As a result of the influx of nutrient-rich sediments, the delta is a prime area for growing sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) (Figure 3), cotton (Gossypium spp.) and indigo (Baptisia macrophylla). The Mississippi River Delta, 2.2 m ha of land area on the southern coast of Louisiana along the Gulf of Mexico, stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west to Chandeleur Islands on the east (Figure 2). The Delta catchment basin drains 3,220,000 km2 of land between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian mountain ranges. The Mississippi River Delta, the 7th largest river delta in the world, is an important coastal region in the US with 1.1 m ha of coastal wetlands (Figure 4) with 37% of estuarine marshes in the United States. The primary objectives of the paper are: 1) to document the landscape and geological properties of the Mississippi River Delta which have contributed to the successful economic and resource development of a historically-rich region Figure 1. The six sub-deltas which form the current Mississippi River Delta Map by Mic Greenberg. DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 140 Open Journal of Soil Science K. R. Olson, C. D. Suski Figure 2. Location of the Mississippi River Delta Map by Mic Greenberg. Figure 3. Sugar cane growing on ridges with a residue cover on the Mississippi River Delta. of North America and 2) to identify the environmental and natural resource risks to the Mississippi River Delta. Environmental challenges include land sub- sidence as a result of the pumping of vast amounts of oil and gas (Figure 5), the lack of sediment deposition in the Mississippi River Delta as a result of levees, the settlement of millions of people on the Mississippi River Delta, compaction, navigation on the Mississippi River (Figure 6), disposal of untreated and treated DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 141 Open Journal of Soil Science K. R. Olson, C. D. Suski Figure 4. Wetland marshes along the Gulf of Mexico coastal shoreline photograph taken by Lois Wright Morton. Figure 5. Picture of the oil and gas refineries on the Mississippi Delta. Figure 6. Ships on the Mississippi River near Lake Pontchartrain. DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 142 Open Journal of Soil Science K. R. Olson, C. D. Suski wastewater, water pollution, the impact of hurricanes on coastal shore erosion, and periodic flooding (Figure 7). 2. Site Location 2.1. Historical Geology of the Mississippi River Delta Holocene Mississippi Delta began to form approximately 5000 BCE as the rate of sea-level rise slowed and was outpaced by the rate of sediment delivery to the basin [2]. The delta was comprised of smaller sub-deltas that overlapped over time [3]. Eventually, the Mississippi River Delta was formed by at least six delta complexes (Figure 1). The Mississippi River Delta complexes consist of smaller areas known as delta lobes, which include basins and other natural landscapes of the coastline. These are identified as Mariggouin, Teche, St. Bernard, La Fourche, Plaquemine-Balize and Atchafalalya and Wax Lake Outlet sub-deltas. After each deltaic cycle, which offered a shorter route for the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, the older delta lobe was abandoned. This cut off the primary supply of fresh water and sediments to an older lobe, where these sediments un- derwent compaction, subsidence and erosion. The sub-deltas delivered their sediment load to the Mississippi River basin and built land through processes of pro-gradation into bay environments, ag- gradation by crevasse and overbank deposition. Sub-deltas were initiated with stream capture, which delivered both freshwater and sediment to new de- po-centers and were ultimately abandoned as the depo-center changed positions in response to river changes in alignment [3]. The historic and prehistoric delta lobes of the Mississippi River Delta have influenced the formation of the Louisi- ana coastline and created over 1.6 m ha of coastal wetlands [4]. Periods of land Figure 7. Flooding of a Louisiana city on the Lake Pontchartain photograph taken by Lois Wright Morton. DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2021.113008 143 Open Journal of Soil Science K. R. Olson, C. D. Suski loss and land building occurred in different areas of the delta as the river changed course and the natural flow of freshwater and sediments was altered. In the natural deltaic cycle, the land (delta lobes) that form where the river meets the sea grows outward extending from the river as it overflows its banks and deposits sediment into the basins. This process is known as pro-gradation. Further from the river’s mouth, the processes of subsidence, erosion and sea-level rise dominate and can result in coastal retreat. The creation of the Mis- sissippi River Delta with integrated natural pro-gradation and degradation processes resulted in a mix of unique habitats, ecosystems and landforms. The Atchafalaya River is the largest distributary of the Mississippi River and is also considered to be a significant part of the continual land-building process within the Mississippi River Delta. Around the middle of the twentieth century, the Atchafalaya River’s tributary channel was formed as part of the Atchafalaya and Wax Lake lobes [5]. 2.2. Cultural History Native Americans called Paleoindiano settled on prairies west of the Teche re- gion 13,500 years ago. Approximately 4500 years ago, other Native Americans constructed an earthen mound at Avery Island. At the start of the colonial era, two Native American tribes lived near Bayou Teche, the Opelousas and the At- tahapas. In 1519 Alvarez de Pineda of Spain discovered the Mississippi River Delta. In 1682, Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River Delta for France. In 1699 the French built the first fort at La Balize on Southeast Pass in Pass a Loutre to control passage from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. The first recorded attempt to control the Mississippi and tributary landscapes occurred in 1717. A deep water port, New Orleans, was established by the French on the Mississippi River about 80 km up river from the current Gulf of Mexico. The original settlement had 14 city blocks with drainage ditches around each block and was the first recorded attempt to control the landscape. The first levee was along the bank of the Mississippi River may have been erected in 1718, but was never confirmed. Documented levees were built in 1722 by the French. These levees were 1.2 m high earthen mounds that began a 300-year history of combating high water with embankments.
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