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A river delta is so named because the shape of the Nile Delta approximates the triangular uppercase Greek letter delta.The triangular shape of the Nile Delta was known to audiences of classical Athenian drama; the tragedy Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus refers to it as the "triangular Nilotic land", though not as a "delta". [8]
The Mississippi River Delta is a river-dominated delta system, influenced by the largest river system in North America. The shape of the current birdfoot delta reflects the dominance the river exerts over the other hydrologic and geologic processes at play in the northern Gulf of Mexico. [ 6 ]
The cuspate deltaic lobe is defined by its abrupt rate of discharge from river to body of water, and the creation of multiple cusp systems built up into separate but active distributaries. [9] One such example of a cuspate delta is the Tiber River delta of Italy. The river was formed first as a deltaic lobe cusp prograded from the river mouth.
The San Joaquin River throughout most of the Delta and the lower Sacramento River below its connection to the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel are routinely dredged to allow the passage of large cargo ships. The Sacramento River corridor has been maintained to a depth of 7 ft (2.1 m) as early as 1899, and was deepened to 30 ft (9.1 m) in 1955.
Moreover, mouth bar deposits offer a strategic location for the research projects regarding estuarine and delta restoration which makes them ideal for studying the effects of river sediment reduction and relative sea level rise and for estimating the evolution, including land loss and inundation, of the river deltas.
The shifting river delta at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf Coast lies some 300 miles south of this area in Louisiana, and is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta. Rather, the Mississippi Delta is part of an alluvial plain , created by regular flooding of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers over thousands of years.
River deltas typically form on flat, coastal floodplains: the narrow end located at the point where a river fans out and deposits sediment in a region extending outward into the body of water which the river empties. In the case of an inverted delta, the delta is located at the waterway's exit from a large, flat valley, yet still inside the valley.
Like other desert river deltas, such as the Nile Delta and the Indus River Delta, the Colorado River delta has been greatly altered by human activity. Decades of dam construction and water diversions in the United States and Mexico have reduced the delta to a remnant system of small wetlands and brackish mudflats. [ 6 ]