THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
The Mississippi River is
part of the Missouri-Mississippi river system, which is the largest river
system in North America and among the largest in the world: by length (6,300 km), it is the fourth
longest, and by its
average discharge of 16,200 m³/s, it is the tenth largest.
The Mississippi flows 3770 km from its
source at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. While the Mississippi ranks as the second longest river
in the United States after the Missouri River, it carries a greater volume of
water than any other American river. This map, illustrating the three major
rivers of the central United States, shows that the Missouri converges with the
Mississippi near St. Louis, and the Ohio converges with the Mississippi in
The river is divided into
its source south to the Ohio River, and the lower
the Ohio to its mouth near New
The Mississippi River runs through 10 states and was used to define portions of these
states' borders. The middle of the riverbed at the time the borders were
established was the line to define the borders between states. The river has since shifted, but
the state borders of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi have not changed; they still follow
the former bed of the Mississippi River as of their establishment.
The name Mississippi is derived from the language spoken by the Ojibwe people (A Native American people) misi-ziibi ("Great River") or gichi-ziibi
1. The Mississippi River is the 4th longest river in the world. What are the three longest rivers? Find out here
2. By average discharge, the Mississippi is number 10 in the list. Which river is number 1? Find out here
3. Look at the map and answer the questions:
||1. The Mississippi River
starts in which northern state?
|2. Into which large body
of water does the Mississippi
|3. In which state does
the Mississippi River end?
|4. Does the Mississippi River flow:
north to south, south to north, east to west, or west to east?
|5. If you cross the Mississippi River from Kentucky, in which state are you?
|6. Which state is just
east of Louisiana?
|7. Which state is just
north of Missouri?
|8. Which state borders Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Indiana?
|9. What country is north
|10. Which state borders
the Mississippi River, Lake Superior, and Lake