the Delta

physiography of

• Mississippi
  • 
    In Mississippi: Relief and soils

    …the great fertile crescent called the Delta is the old floodplain of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, comprising some 6,250 square miles (16,200 square km) of black alluvial soil several feet deep. Once subject to disastrous floods, the land is now protected by levee and reservoir systems.

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    In Mississippi: Settlement patterns

    …people of Mississippi it is the Delta, historically characterized by aristocratic plantation traditions and now a region of highly mechanized farming. Many Delta families originally came from the Hills to the east, which also is an agricultural zone. Adjacent to the Hills, but with more-productive lands, the Prairie region reflects…

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• Mississippi River
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    In Mississippi River: Physiography

    The Mississippi’s delta is an even more striking monument to the river’s constructive work. There, at the tip of the drainage funnel, millions of years of sedimentation have spilled out across the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, forming cones of sediment that total 300 mi in…

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• Yazoo River
  • 
    In Yazoo River

    …basin is variously called the Mississippi Delta, the Yazoo Delta, and the Yazoo Basin and is renowned as one of the birthplaces of blues music. Chief cities along the Yazoo River are Greenwood and Yazoo City.

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