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Muddy river water
The Missouri River isn’t known for crystal-clear water.
In fact, it’s called the “Big Muddy” because of its brown, muddy appearance. This is due to the enormous amounts of sediment – loose material such as sand, silt, clay, or organic particles – it carries from across its expansive watershed.
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Historically, the vast amount of sediment carried by the Missouri River downstream into the Mississippi River and on to the Gulf of America, also known as the Gulf of Mexico, built and sustained the Mississippi River Delta and its coastal wetlands over thousands of years. Much of the fine material that makes up the delta’s land and marshes came from the interior United States through the Missouri-Mississippi watershed, and this sediment was essential for creating the fertile, low-lying delta environment along the Gulf coast.
Although this river still carries a lot of sediment today, dams built along the river for hydropower and flood control trap much of its sediment, leaving the Gulf region more vulnerable to storms and rising water.