| Today, large increases of land loss in Louisiana
have been attributed to flood control management strategies of the Mississippi
River. However, subsidence is also influenced by sediment compaction, tectonic
activity, and crustal sinking (Saucier, 1994).
The Mississippi deltaic plain area has been affected by all five of these
factors (Kolb and Van Lopik, 1958). |
Picture of Levee on the Mississippi River courtesy of James
Addison, US Army Corp of Engineers |
Presently the Mississippi River delta has two
active deltas, the Belize delta and the Atchafalaya delta. Cahoon
et al. observed that wetland loss is attributed to net submergence,
a dominant process in the destruct ional phase of the deltaic cycle. Net
submergence has three components including subsidence, sea level rise, and
accretion of surface land through mineral and sediment deposition and organic
matter production. It occurs in areas where subsidence and sea level rise
exceed vertical growth (1995).
However, much of the Louisiana coast is undergoing net submergence because
accretion is not able to counter the effects of subsidence and sea level
rise through vertical growth. Submergence rates average 1 cm per year while
vertical growth averages about 0.6 cm per year (Cahoon
et al, 1995). These numbers do not take into account compaction that
occurs in the upper few meters of the delta. This might imply that submergence
rates are even greater as a whole because the potential for compaction is
greater in the upper 2 meters of surface sediments (Turner
1991). Turner concluded that this is a product of organic decomposition,
sediment compaction, and soil dewatering (1991).
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Most observed submergence is not from eustatic sea levels rise (10-50%)
but from subsidence (Penland at al., 1994).
Subsidence rates are a reflection of the age and thickness of Holocene sediment
deposits. The thickest Holocene sediment deposits have the greatest potential
for compaction. Younger sediment deposits subside faster than older deposits
because they have not been consolidated and compacted as extensively as
the older deposits. Penland et al. has observed the thickest Holocene sediments
(100 meters) are within the largest portion of the coast. Thus this area
is subsiding at a faster rate than any other sections of the Mississippi
Delta (Kuecher et al., 1993).
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