Connecting the historic 2011 Mississippi River flood to marsh sedimentation on the Delta

The 2011 Mississippi River flood was arguably the largest in history. Although the massive inundation resulting from the flood was devastating for residents on the Delta, sediment carried to sea by the swollen river had the potential to combat wetland loss in some areas. There is currently much debate regarding how, and to what degree, sediment from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers contributes to maintaining and building fragile coastal marshes. This historic flood presented a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to determine the impact of a geologically-significant flood event on coastal sedimentation patterns and rates. We present a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional effort to use the 2011 Mississippi flood to connect the dots between river dynamics, coastal dynamics, and marsh maintenance. We performed a coupled satellite analysis, boat survey and surface sediment sampling approach to characterize if and how sediments from this historic flood contributed to deposition and maintenance of Mississippi Delta coastal marshes. Sea surface temperature, height and color from satellite data have been used to track mixing and transport of river plume sediments; the boat survey measured the currents and sediment concentrations of the Mississippi plume in-situ during the peak of the flood; and a helicopter survey sampled marsh sediments after the flood subsided, allowing determination of flood-induced deposition rates and also sediment provenance. Preliminary results show that the Mississippi River injected sediment into the Gulf and did not contribute greatly to wetland development because of its narrow, focused jet. The Atchafalaya River plume spread diffusely across the landscape, and sediments reaching the sea were trapped within the coastal zone because the weak jet was incapable of penetrating the coastal current. Significant sedimentation occurred around the Atchafalaya, demonstrating that the flood contributed to wetland maintenance.