Earth  ID: 11759

Growing Plains

Story by Adam P. Voiland | Visualizations by Jesse Allen Released on March 26, 2015
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River sediment is creating new landforms on Louisiana's coastline.
Louisiana’s coastline is retreating. Over the next 50 years, scientists expect the Mississippi Delta Plain—a lobe-shaped arc of coastal land that borders the Gulf of Mexico—will lose roughly 3,000 square miles of land. But while portions of the delta plain are disappearing, new land is actually forming in a swampy area about one hundred miles southwest of New Orleans. The Atchafalaya and Wax Lake Outlet deltas have been growing southward by about one square mile per year since the early 1970s. Both deltas are being built by sediment carried by the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi River. The sediment settles into shallow waters and gives rise to sandbars that emerge from the sea in striking fan shapes that can be seen from space. Since 1984, USGS-NASA Landsat satellites have captured images that chronicle the growth of the two deltas. Watch the video to see a time-lapse of their evolution.
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USGS-NASA Landsat satellites captured these false-color images of the Wax Lake Outlet and Atchafalaya deltas between 1984 and 2014.
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Vegetation and sand can be seen emerging from the water in this 1986 satellite image.
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Between 1989 and 1995, the deltas added a combined 13 square miles of land.
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By 2014, the deltas had grown dramatically.

For More Information

NASA Earth Observatory

Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Jesse Allen (Sigma Space Corporation)

Lead Writer:
Adam P. Voiland (Sigma Space Corporation)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Earth Observatory
Cover image courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Arthur Belala
Satellite images courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11759

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth