Deltas into Rivers: Chippewa River into the Mississippi River, Wisconsin

The Chippewa River drains the glaciated terrains of north-central Wisconsin including major outwash plains from the margins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.  The sand carried by the Chippewa is a major sediment source for the Upper Mississippi River for tens of miles downstream.  The Chippewa forms a beautiful delta into the Mississppi River, as seen below, creating the only natural lake on the Mississippi, in the form of Lake Pepin (birthplace of water-skiing, by the way).  I like this delta because we don’t often think of riverine deltas forming in the rivers, and their propogating upstream and downstream effects. Plus, it makes a pretty contrast to the dissected blufflands of the Driftless area.

Flash earth link: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=44.418021&lon=-92.140805&z=11.6&r=0&src=msa If you zoom in on Flash Earth you can get some nice imagery of the sand bars and fluvial islands of the Chippewa as you move upstream, plus some nice long anastomosing reaches.