I Can’t Sleep - Mississippi River | Calm Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

Drift off with calm bedtime reading about the Mississippi River to ease sleepless nights and insomnia. This peaceful episode takes you on a gentle journey along one of the world’s great rivers, blending history, geography, and nature into a soothing flow of knowledge. Benjamin’s relaxing cadence makes it easy to unwind, with no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling to reduce stress and quiet the mind. Learn while you rest and drift into sleep. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Mississippi River, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Mississippi River. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Mississippi River.

The Mississippi River is the second longest river and chief river of the second largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Etosca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,320 miles to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States. The total drainage basin is 1,151,000 square miles, which only about 1% is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest river and 15th largest river. by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota,

Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the mound builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the native way of life as first explorers, then settlers ventured into the basin in increasing numbers. The river served first as a barrier forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. In the 19th century during the height of the ideological manifest destiny, the Mississippi

and several western tributaries, most notably the Missouri, formed pathways for the western expansion of the United States. Formed from thick layers of the river's silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile regions of the United States. Steamboats were widely used in the 19th and 20th centuries to ship agricultural and industrial goods. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turnpoint towards victory,

due to the river's strategic importance to the Confederate war effort. Because of substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that replace steamboats, the first decades of the 20th century saw the construction of massive engineering works, such as levees, locks, and dams, often built in combination. A major focus of this work has been to prevent the lower Mississippi from shifting into the channel of the Atchafalaya River, and bypassing New Orleans. Since the 20th century, the Mississippi River has also experienced major pollution and environmental problems, most notably elevated nutrient and chemical levels from agricultural runoff, the primary contributor to the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. Name and significance.

The word Mississippi itself comes from Mississippi, the French rendering of the Anishinab, Ojibwe Oralganquin name for the river, Mississippi, Great River. In the 18th century, the river was the primary western boundary of the young United States, and since the country's expansion westward, the Mississippi River has been widely considered a convenient, if approximate dividing line between the eastern, southern, and midwestern United States and the western United States.

This exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, such as the highest peak east of the Mississippi, or the oldest city west of the Mississippi. The FCC also uses it as the dividing line for broadcast call signs, which begin with W to east and K to the west, mixing together in media market. along the river. Divisions. The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections. The upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River, the middle

Mississippi, which is downriver from the Missouri to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, which flows from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. Upper Mississippi. The upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. It is divided into two sections. One, the headwaters, 493 miles from the source to St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And two, a navigational channel formed by a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Missouri, some 664 miles. The source of the upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Etosca, 1,475 feet above sea level, in Atoska State Park and Clearwater County, Minnesota.

The name Etosca was chosen to designate the true head of the Mississippi River as a combination of the last four letters of the Latin word for truth, veritas, and the first two letters of the Latin word for head, Caput. However, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at late Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, the waterways flow is moderated by 43 dams. Fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation.

The remaining 29 dams beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all of the city of the all contained locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river. Taken as a whole, these 43 dams significantly shape the geography and influence the ecology of the upper river. Beginning just below St. Paul, Minnesota and continuing through the upper and lower river, the Mississippi is further controlled by thousands of wing dikes that moderate the river's flow in order to maintain an open navigation channel and prevent the river from a river from a river. eroding its banks. The head of navigation on the Mississippi is the Coon Rapids Dam and Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

Before it was built in 1913, steamboats could occasionally go upstream as far as St. Cloud, Minnesota, depending on river conditions. The uppermost lock and dam on the upper Mississippi River is the upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in Minneapolis. Above the dam, the river's elevation is 799 feet. Below the dam, the river's elevation is 750. This 49-foot drop is the largest of all the Mississippi River locks and dams. The origin of the dramatic drop is a waterfall preserved adjacent to the lock under an apron of concrete.

St. Anthony Falls is the only true waterfall on the entire Mississippi River. The water elevation continues to drop steeply as it passes through the gorge carved by the waterfall. After the completion of the St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in 1963, the river's head of navigation moved upstream to the Coon Rapids Dam. However, the locks were closed in 2015 to control the spread of invasive Asian carp, making Minneapolis once again the site of the head of navigation of the river. The Upper Mississippi has a number of natural and artificial lakes, with its widest point being Lake Winnebagoosges, near Grand Rapids. Minnesota, over 11 miles across. Lake on Alaska, created by Lock and Dam Number 7, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, is more than four miles wide.

Lake Pepin, a natural lake formed behind the delta of the Chippewa River of Wisconsin as it enters at Upper Mississippi, is more than two miles wide. By the time the Upper Mississippi reaches St. Paul, Minnesota, below Lock and Dam number one, it has dropped more than half its original elevation and is 687 feet above sea level. From St. Paul to St. Louis, Missouri, the river elevation falls much more slowly and is controlled and managed as a series of pools created by 26 locks and dams. The Upper Mississippi River is joined by the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling in the Twin Cities. The St. Craw River near Prescott, Wisconsin, a Cannon River near Red Wing,

Minnesota, the Zumbro River at Wabasha, Minnesota, the Black, La Crosse, and Root Rivers at La Crosse, Wisconsin, the Wisconsin River at Prairie Deschain, Wisconsin, the Rock River at the Quad Cities, the Iowa River near Wapello, Iowa, the Skunk River south of Burlington, Iowa, and the Des Moines River at Keukuk, Iowa. Other major tributaries of the Upper Mississippi include the Crow River in Minnesota, the Chippewa River in Wisconsin, the Makwoketa River and the Wab Sapinican River in Iowa, and the Illinois River in Illinois. The Upper Mississippi is largely a multi-thread stream with many bars and islands. From its confluence with the St. Croix River downstream to Dubuque, Iowa, the river is entrenched, the high bedrock bluffs lying on either side. The height of these

bluffs decreases to the south of Dubuque, though they are still significant through Savannah, Illinois. This typography contrasts strongly with the lower Mississippi, which is a meandering river in a broad, flat area, only rarely flowing alongside a bluff, as at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Middle Mississippi The Mississippi River is known as the Middle Mississippi from the Upper Mississippi River's confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri, or 190,000. miles to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. The Middle Mississippi is relatively free-flowing.

From St. Louis to the Ohio River confluence, the Middle Mississippi falls 220 feet over 180 miles, for an average rate of 1.2 feet per mile. At its confluence with the Ohio River, the Middle Mississippi is 315 feet above sea level. apart from the Missouri and Merrimack Rivers of Missouri and the Cascassia River of Illinois, no major tributaries enter the Middle Mississippi River. Lower Mississippi. The Mississippi River is called the Lower Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River to its mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 1,000 miles.

At the confluence of the Ohio and the middle Mississippi, the long-term mean discharge of the Ohio Iowa, Cairo, Illinois is 281,500 cubic feet per second, while the long-term mean discharge of the Mississippi at Thebes, Illinois, just upriver from Cairo, is 208,200 cubic feet per second. Thus, by volume, the main branch of the Mississippi River system at Cairo can be considered to be the Ohio River, and the Allegheny further upstream, rather than the Middle Mississippi. Thus, by volume, the main branch of the Mississippi River system at Cairo can be considered to be the Ohio River and the Allegheny River further upstream rather than the Middle Mississippi. In addition to the Ohio River, the major tributaries of the Lower Mississippi River are the White River, blowing in at the White River National Wildlife Refuge in East Central Arkansas. The Arkansas River, joining the Mississippi at Arkansas Post, the Big Black River in Mississippi, and the Yawah,

River, meeting the Mississippi at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The widest point of the Mississippi River is in the lower Mississippi portion, where it exceeds one mile and width in several places. Deliberate water diversion at the Old River control structure in Louisiana allows the Achofalaya River in Louisiana to be a major distributary of the Mississippi River. With 30% of the combined flow of the Mississippi and Red Rivers flowing to the Gulf of Mexico by this route, rather than continuing down the Mississippi's current channel past Baton Rouge and New Orleans on a larger route to the Gulf. Although the Red River is commonly mistaken for an additional tributary, its water flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico through the Ochofellaya River.

The Mississippi River has the world's fourth largest drainage basin, watershed or catchment. The basin covers more than 1,245,000 square miles, including all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The drainage basin empties into the Gulf of Mexico, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The total catchment of the Mississippi River covers nearly 40% of the landmass of the continental United States. The highest point within the watershed is also the highest point of the Rocky Mountains, Mount U.S. Elbert at 14,440 feet. In the United States, the Mississippi River drains the majority of the area between the crest of the Rocky Mountains and the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, except for various regions drained to Hudson Bay by the Red River of the North,

to the Atlantic Ocean by the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, and to the Gulf of Mexico by the Rio Grande, the Alabama and Tom Bigby Rivers, the Chattahoochee and Appaluchikola rivers, and various smaller coastal waterways along the Gulf. The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles downstream from New Orleans. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itatska to the Gulf of Mexico vary somewhat, but the United States Geological Survey's number is 2,320 miles. The retention time from Lake Atoska to the Gulf is typically about 90 days. Outflow

The Mississippi River discharges at an annual average rate of between 200 and 700,000 cubic feet per second. Although it is the fifth largest river in the world by volume, this flow is a small fraction of the output of the Amazon, which moves nearly 7 million cubic feet per second during the wet seasons. On average, the Mississippi has only 8% of the flow of the Amazon River. Fresh river water flowing from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico does not mix into the salt water immediately. The images from NASA's modus show a large plume of fresh water, which appears as a dark ribbon against the lighter blue surrounding waters. These images demonstrate that the plume did not mix with the surrounding seawater immediately.

Instead, it stayed intact as it flowed through the Gulf of Mexico, into the streets of Florida, and entered the Gulf Stream. The Mississippi River water rounded the tip of Florida and traveled up the southeast coast to the latitude of Georgia, before finally mixing in so surly with the ocean that it could no longer be detected by modus. Before 1900, the Mississippi River transported an estimated 400 million metric tons of sediment per year. from the interior of the United States to coastal Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. During the last two decades, this number was only 145 million metric tons per year. The reduction in sediment transported down the Mississippi River is the result of engineering modification of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers

and their tributaries by dams, meander cutoffs, river training structures, and bank ravenments and soil erosion control programs in the air. areas drained by them. Course changes. Over geologic time, the Mississippi River has experienced numerous, large, and small changes to its main course, as well as additions, deletions, and other changes among its numerous tributaries, and the Lower Mississippi River has used different pathways as its main channel to the Gulf of Mexico across the Delta region.

Through a natural process known as evulsion or delta switching, the Lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico every thousand years or so. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment begin to clog its channel, raising the river's level and causing it to eventually find a steeper, more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico. The abandoned distributaries diminish in volume and form what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of South Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 50 miles. This process has over the past 5,000 years caused the coastline of South Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 20 miles.

The currently active delta lobe is called the Birdfoot Delta after its shape, or the Belize Delta after La Belize, Louisiana, the first French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. Prehistoric courses The current form of the Mississippi River Basin was largely shaped by the Laurentide Ice Sheet of the most recent Ice Age. The southernmost extent of this enormous glaciation extended well into the present-day United States and Mississippi Basin. When the ice sheet began to recede, hundreds of feet of rich sediment were deposited, creating the flat and fertile landscape of the Mississippi Valley. During the melt, giant glacial rivers found drainage paths into the Mississippi watershed,

creating such features as the Minnesota River, James River, and Milk River valleys. When the ice sheet completely retreated, many of these temporary rivers found paths to Hudson Bay, or the Arctic Ocean, leaving the Mississippi basin with many features oversized for the existing rivers to have carved. in the same time period. Ice sheets during the Illinois' stage, about 300,000 to 132,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, Illinois, diverting it to its present channel farther to the west, a current western border of Illinois. The Hennepin Canal roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi downstream from Rock Island to Hennepin, Illinois. south of Hennepin to Alton, Illinois, the current Illinois River follows the ancient channel

used by the Mississippi River before the Illinoisan stage. Timeline of outflow course changes. Circa 5,000 BC, the last ice age ended, world sea level became what it is now. Circa 2,500 BC, Bayuteca became the main course of the Mississippi. Circa 800 BC, the Mississippi diverted further east. Circa 200 AD, Bayou Lafouche became the main course of the Mississippi. Circa 1,000 AD, the Mississippi's present course took over. Before circa 1400 AD, the Red River of the South flowed parallel to the lower Mississippi to the sea.

15th century. Turnbulls bend in the lower. Lower Mississippi extended so far west that it captured the Red River of the South. The Red River below the captured section became the Achofalaya River. 1831. Captain Henry M. Shreve dug a new short course for the Mississippi through the neck of Turnbull's Ben. 1833 to November 1873.

The Great Raft, a huge log jam, and the Achofalaya River was cleared. the Ocophilae started to capture the Mississippi and to become its new main lower course. 1963. The Old River Control Structure was completed, controlling how much Mississippi water entered the Ochafalaia. Historic course changes. In March 1876, the Mississippi suddenly changed course near the settlement of Revere, Tennessee, leaving a small part of Tipton County, Tennessee attached to Arkansas and separated from the rest of Tennessee. by the New River Channel.

Since this event was an avulsion rather than the effect of incremental erosion and deposition, the state line still follows the old channel. The town of Cascassia, Illinois once stood on a peninsula at the confluence of the Mississippi and Cascacia Ocaw rivers. Founded as a French colonial community,

it later became the capital of the Illinois territory and was the first state capital of Illinois until 1819. Beginning in 1844, successive flooding caused the Mississippi River to slowly encroach east. A major flood in 1881 caused it to overtake the lower 10 miles of the Cascassia River, forming a new Mississippi Channel and cutting off the town from the rest of the state. Later flooding destroyed most of the remaining town, including the original statehouse.

Today, the remaining 2,300 acres island and community of 14 residents is known as an enclave of Illinois and is accessible only from the Missouri side. New Madrid Seismic Zone The New Madrid Seismic Zone along the Mississippi River near Madrid, Missouri, between Memphis and St. Louis, is related to an Al-Aquigen-Failed rift that formed at the same time as the Gulf of Mexico. This area is still quite active seismically. Four great earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately eight on the Richter- Magnitude Scale, had tremendous local effects in the then sparsely settled area, and were felt in many other places in the Midwestern and Eastern U.S. These earthquakes created Real Foot Lake in Tennessee from the altered landscape near the river.

Length When measured from its traditional source at Lake Atosca, the Mississippi has a length of 2000. 320 miles. When measured from its longest stream source, most distant source from the sea, Brower Spring in Montana, the source of the Missouri River, it has a length of 3,710 miles, making it the fourth longest river in the world after the Nile, Amazon, and Yanksy. When measured by the largest stream source by water volume, the Ohio River, by extension of the Allegheny River, would be the source, and the Mississippi would begin in Pennsylvania.

depth. At its source at Lake Etosca, the Mississippi River is about three feet deep. The average depth of the Mississippi River between St. Paul and St. Louis is between 9 and 12 feet deep. The deepest part being Lake Pepin, which averages 20 to 32 feet deep and has a maximum depth of 60 feet. Between St. Louis, Missouri, where the Missouri River joins in Cairo, Illinois, the depth averages 30 feet. below Cairo where the Ohio River joins, the depth averages 50 to 100 feet deep. The deepest part of the river is in New Orleans, where it reaches 200 feet deep.