Mississippi Delta, SIR-C/X-SAR Image
Radar image of the Mississippi River Delta where the river enters into the Gulf of Mexico. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 2, 1995. As the river enters the Gulf of Mexico, it loses energy and dumps its load of sediment that it has carried on its journey through the mid-continent. This pile of sediment, or mud, accumulates over the years building up the delta front. As one part of the delta becomes clogged with sediment, the delta front will migrate in search of new areas to grow. The area shown on this image is the currently active delta front of the Mississippi. The migratory nature of the delta forms natural traps for oil and the numerous bright spots along the outside of the delta are drilling platforms. Most of the land in the image consists of mud flats and marsh lands. There is little human settlement in this area due to the instability of the sediments. The main shipping channel of the Mississippi River is the broad red stripe running northwest to southeast down the left side of the image. The bright spots within the channel are ships.
Size: 2749px × 4938px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aerial, aperture, delta, endeavour, flat, geography, gulf, image, imaging, land, louisiana, marsh, marshland, mexico, mississippi, mud, photography, radar, radar-/-band, river, satellite, shuttle, sir-/-sar, space, spaceborne, synthetic, topography, wetland
