Mississippi River Delta

Not to be confused with Mississippi Delta.

Map of the Mississippi River watershed

False-color image of the larger Mississippi River Delta

The Mississippi River Delta is the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, southeastern United States. The river delta 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 Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States. The Mississippi River Delta is the seventh-largest river delta on Earth.

Mississippi River Delta Media

• 

  2001 Image of the active delta front before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the delta in 2005

• 

  The Mississippi River Delta, showing the sediment plumes from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, 2001

• 

  Coastal change in southeastern Louisiana

• 

  Population density and low-elevation coastal zones in the Mississippi River Delta. The Mississippi River Delta is especially vulnerable to sea level rise.