Is the Mississippi river cutting the U.S. in half?

Each year the Mississippi river is getting wider and not just from washouts and floods that the river is know to regularly have. But people believe that one day is will separate the east from the west of the United States all the way from the gulf of mexico up to the great lakes.some scientist and geologist are studying the effects of it for the foreseeable future. Could it be waiting for the big quake near the New Madrid fault zone to reverse the flow again and finally separate the U.S? So what do you believe will happen to it? As you can see it is already starting to slowly happen with the large sinkholes in the south and with the slow collapse of the Louann salt dome.

reply to post by chrismg


It's hard to envision enough water continuously flowing from inland to sea for the Mississippi to ever reach the proportions suggested on purported "future maps" like Gordon Michael Scallions', and it is not much easier to imagine the circumstances under which the sea could realistically backfill the river's trough, if that's what you mean.

Its an interesting concept. If the river looses 1 ft of each side every year in 3000 years the river would be 6000 ft wider.

The only way to stop that is to start lining the edges with huge boulders or thick slabs of concrete like they cut out of the interstates on occasion. That's a long distance to think about lining the edges though.

This is pretty cool, although it should happen either around D.C. or California. Why not both? xD

The Mississippi is small compared to its natural size. Constant dredging keeps the river channel open for barges. In some places you can see the real banks of the Mississippi they are usually a mile apart. The Mississippi system is controlled by the Corp of Engineers with channel dredging and levee systems.

It would take a earthquake along the entire river spiting the earths crust for this to happen.

I dont know about the Mississippi, but Barak Obama certainly is....

like the many geological events that could take place in the future to cover the watery south and east shores of america. just like in his pictures above i believe that it could and will happen.

reply to post by chrismg


No it couldnt in fact if it wasnt for constant dredging the river wouldnt be as big as it is.

reply to post by Voyager1


The Army Corp of Engineer's does that regularly along areas of the river that are high risk areas of erosion...I live right on the Mississippi river...Though its not the case for the whole river,however most of the riverbed is made up of clay and because of the relative low altitude of the river, it moves slow, compared to other rivers of its size and length. Because of these factors the Mississippi River cuts the landscape a lot slower than one would think.

On another note I believe in the future that some natural disaster, ie New Madrid ect.... will speed up the process.

reply to post by highfreq


yes by speeding the process of separating the east from the central,and west.

phantomjack
I dont know about the Mississippi, but Barak Obama certainly is....

Hands down, the Best quote Ive heard in the Last 6 years...

as for the Mississippi,.
hasnt it been in the lowest level in decades?

it still changes all the time with the constant dredging and erosion or the river water going up and down with the tides.its still a possibility that could happen.

even a severe shallow 2.5-3.0 earthquake could mess alot of stuff up.