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Article: Mississippi River Basin
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- Water:Science and Issues
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mississippi River Basin
The Mississippi River is North America's longest and largest river in terms of
discharge
, and the fifth largest discharge river worldwide, at an average of 17,330 cubic meters per second (811,530 cubic feet per second). The Mississippi flows 3,763 kilometers (2,333 miles) from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to its
delta
in southern Louisiana (see map).
The Mississippi River
drainage basin
is the world's second largest, draining 4.76 million square kilometers (1.83 million square miles), including
tributaries
from thirty-two U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The Mississippi River
watershed
encompasses 40 percent of the contiguous United ...