How the US Accidentally Split its Longest River in Two...

there's a lake in the forests of northern Minnesota called Lake Itasca out of it a small Creek flows north then East more creeks and streams flowing into it on its path near the town of Bemidji its water meets a system of larger Lakes slowly growing and eventually looping back to the South but this isn't just any stream its name is the Mississippi River in 2 340 miles Downstream the Waters of the once small Creek that leaves Lake Itasca meet the Gulf of Mexico the lake isn't even the furthest branch of the River from its source for that you'd have to go to the Mountains of Montana near the Idaho border to Hell Roaring Creek which makes its way Downstream through a number of tributaries to the Jefferson and then Missouri River the Missouri then winds across the Great Plains and Midwest to just outside of St Louis Missouri where it flows into the Mississippi if you measure from Hell Roaring Creek the Mississippi is the fourth longest river system on Earth the Missouri from its Headwaters to its Confluence with the Mississippi is actually one mile longer than the entire Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico because of this some people believe that it should be viewed the other way around with the Mississippi considered to flow into the Missouri and not vice versa but that would ignore the actual amount of water flowing through the rivers themselves if you measure the volume of the two rivers discharge at the Confluence significantly more water is flowing through the Mississippi which drains a much larger region with higher rainfall than the more arid regions drained by the Missouri other huge tributaries like the Ohio Arkansas Tennessee and red rivers add even more water to the river's mouth in the Gulf of Mexico all in all it trains 40 percent of the contiguous U.S as well as parts of Southern Canada but only 70 percent of the water that flows through the river at its greatest extent actually makes it to the river's mouth what happens to the other 30 it breaks free from the river flowing to the gulf through another route even stranger this changing of the river's course is in large part an accident caused by one man hello and welcome to that is interesting I'm your host Carter today one of the largest rivers on Earth is splitting in two trying to change course and it might not be able to be stopped at all this episode is brought to you by curiositystream the best place to find and watch documentaries about Science History technology nature travel and so much more curiosity stream has exclusive award-winning films and shows that you can't watch anywhere else plus the deepest collection of the best documentaries from around the world deeper than any other streaming service out there curiosity stream adds new shows every week and is one of the very best deals in streaming I actually personally use curiositystream well before the sponsorship I'm a big fan of documentaries that's why I enjoy making long-form content on YouTube and if you enjoy this channel I know you'll love the kind of films that are available on curiosity stream you can find high quality documentaries on geography culture history or any topics that interest you such as science technology or music and it's much more affordable than other streaming services I'm currently enjoying a new series they released called California it's a deep dive in my home state that's right in line with my interests if you like my series the US explained California is one of many shows on curiosity stream that I know you'll enjoy even better you can watch it on any of your devices whether it's your laptop TV or mobile phone go to curiositystream.com tii or scan a QR code for unlimited access to the world's top documentaries and non-fiction series and for my fans use promo code tii and you will save 25 off it's already one of the most affordable and best deals in streaming so click the link below or go to curiositystream.com tii and save 25 right now the Mississippi River is constantly changing course the easiest way to tell is to follow the river's Path South where it forms the border between 10 different states but if you look closely the state borders don't always follow the river exactly in fact the further south you go in States like Mississippi Arkansas and Louisiana the borders follow a winding river-shaped path but one that diverges frequently from the river itself that's because the state borders are a snapshot of the river's path as it was a little over 200 years ago when those states were drawn up the winding bends that you see the Border follow Used to Be Where the River flowed eventually the sides of these bends were eroded away until the two edges of the river met and broke the bends off turning them into Islands the water then took the new easiest route skipping the bend and carving out A New Path this is a natural process water always flows down the path of least resistance and it happens all the time even in the last 200 years you can see how frequently the Mississippi has corrected its course often the old riverbends remain as Lakes called Oxbow Lakes sometimes they continue as smaller Creeks or streams on the Missouri River in Omaha Nebraska there's an Oxbow called Carter Lake Great Name by the way formed from the river changing course that left a piece of the city on the Nebraska side of the river as part of Iowa so if you're in Omaha you can drive into this little piece of Iowa that's right in the city and it isn't accessible by road to the rest of the state without entering Nebraska there are also a number of places where you can see that the river will eventually change course the Kentucky bend on the Mississippi River where Kentucky Missouri and Tennessee Meet is a great example this tiny neck of land will eventually be eroded away New Madrid Missouri will no longer be located on the Mississippi River in the already confusing border there will become even more complicated a similar process is occurring with the etchafalaya it's almost like an oxbow lake being formed at a much larger scale see oxbows are much more common in the South because the Land There is flatter it's much easier for rivers that overflow or erode away at their Banks to find A New Path of least resistance because much of the land is flat all around in Louisiana this is especially true it's one of the flattest and lowest lying states in the country and on top of that there's simply a massive volume of water flowing through it at all times in some areas the river flows above the land around it held in by levees some parts of New Orleans are below sea level and at the river's mouth it gives up on following a single course flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and a massive Delta but further Upstream it's finding a much more direct route to the gulf through the Atchafalaya River the Mississippi has naturally changed course a number of times throughout its long geologic history and thousands of years ago the river's main stem was once the Atchafalaya but for the last few thousand years most water in the Mississippi went to the gulf through its current course today passing through cities like Baton Rouge in New Orleans in the Atchafalaya didn't exist the Red River which begins from a number of streams in New Mexico then flows through Texas Oklahoma and Arkansas before cutting Southeast across Louisiana used to flow separately into the Gulf of Mexico coming very close to the Mississippi but never actually meeting it and reaching the gulf for the Atchafalaya does today it's estimated that around the 1400s the Mississippi took a new natural Meander called turnbull's Bend which met the Red River at the two rivers closest points the Red River South of the bend now received water from the Mississippi as well becoming the Atchafalaya however it didn't change the river too significantly most of the Mississippi still reached the gulf through its main stem that is until one man changed it all Henry Shreve was a steamboat captain on the Mississippi who wanted to open Louisiana's rivers to navigation the problem the Red River was impassable blocked for Centuries by a huge Log Jam known as The Great Raft which stretched 165 miles down the river across much of the state throughout the 1830s SRI reviews a number of ships to begin clearing the raft away and eventually he'd removed it allowing boats to travel significantly further up the Red River to a spot that was then named after him Shreveport additionally Shreve decided to remove turnbull's bend the Meander in the Mississippi that had connected it to the Red River and created the Atchafalaya cutting a channel across and causing the Mississippi to abandon the bend but while the Red River once flowed into the Mississippi it now emptied almost entirely into the Atchafalaya and with the Great Raft cleared more water was emptying into it this caused the Atchafalaya to grow significantly and it carved out a much larger Channel over the next hundred years it continued to grow and the waters the Mississippi began following this new path of least resistance through the Old River the lower Oxbow Left Behind when Henry Shreve cut off turnbulls Bend in the Hundred Years following shreve's changes to the river the percentage of the Mississippi's Waters that left through the Atchafalaya tripled from about 10 to 30 percent in 1953 it began to worry the U.S Army Corps of Engineers they predicted that if nothing were done the Atchafalaya would continue to expand and that in less than 40 years the river would fully change course in an attempt to stop it they built a system of dams and floodgates called The Old River control structure that controls the amount of water passing through the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya keeping it at around 30 percent since then it has been fairly successful but many worry that it's only a matter of time an enormous volume of water flows through the Mississippi and as the Atchafalaya is an easier course to the gulf it's hard to imagine that it can be held back indefinitely a few major floods have already nearly seen the control structure fail and it's easy to imagine a hurricane or flood destroying the Earth and dams and causing the river to follow an easier course as sea levels rise low-lying Louisiana is losing land at a rapid Pace but in fact one part of the state's coastline is actually growing the mouth of the Atchafalaya as the ever widening River continues to deposit sediments carried from Upstream in the Mississippi into the Gulf should the river change course which seems almost inevitable at this point it would potentially destroy the economy of Louisiana and seriously damage the U.S economy overall New Orleans and Baton Rouge the state's two largest cities sit Downstream of the at-risk Old River control structure as do the first 7th 9th and 10th busiest ports in the entire country the mouth of the Mississippi River is an essential point for global trade connecting much of the country's interior with the outside world in shipping oil and grain across the globe where to change course it would be incredibly detrimental especially to New Orleans and Baton Rouge cities which already struggle with high levels of poverty as is on top of that the Atchafalaya Basin Downstream the control structure would likely face devastating flooding as the might and volume of the Mississippi greatly increases the amount of water flowing through it and the thousands of people living Downstream would need to be evacuated in the long run the entire shape of the state's Coastline would likely change noticeably the current river mouth would continue to sink beneath Rising Seas especially with less sediment flowing through and the New River mouth further west would grow into another Delta pushing the coastline there further south although in part a natural process the changing course of one of the largest rivers on Earth has also been largely shaped by the unknowing actions of one man nearly 200 years ago actions whose repercussions are still being dealt with today I want to give a big thank you to everyone who's already joined my patreon through it you can access different things such as behind the scenes videos Early Access to Maps I create and exclusive Discord q a with me ad free content and shout out to my videos please be sure to check out the tii store where you'll be able to purchase all sorts of official that is interesting products and merchandise including shirts hoodies embroidered beanies masks mugs backpacks laptop stickers and sleeves and so on I really appreciate the over 800 of you who have already joined my Discord server if you haven't joined the Discord server yet it's a great place to continue conversations about the topics discussed in these videos interact with fellow viewers and help provide information and suggestions for future videos it's a great community and we do fun stuff like geography Game Nights Live podcasts and so on I'll put links to both 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Channel: That Is Interesting

Views: 340,325

Keywords: weird geography, out of place geography, tii, atchafalaya river, mega projects, disasters

Id: klSX3J1hj0o

Length: 13min 5sec (785 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2023