Q. Consider the following statements regarding the Mississippi–Missouri River system:
1.The Missouri River is structurally the longest individual river in North America and acts as a major tributary to the Mississippi River.
2.The Mississippi River originates from Lake Itasca in Minnesota, while the Missouri River rises in the Rocky Mountains.
3.The river system forms a classic arcuate delta at its mouth, similar to the Nile and Ganges river systems.
4.The Missouri River flows south and converges directly with the Mississippi River within the city boundaries of New Orleans.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer: A
Notes:
Explanation:
- Statement 1 is correct: The Missouri River (3,767 km) is longer than the main stem of the Mississippi River (3,540 km), making it the longest single river in North America. It serves as the principal western tributary of the Mississippi.
- Statement 2 is correct: The Mississippi River begins its journey at Lake Itasca, USA. Its major tributary, the Missouri River, begins at the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountains of Montana.
- Statement 3 is incorrect: The Mississippi-Missouri river system is famous for creating a Bird’s Foot delta (digitate delta), characterized by long, finger-like distributary channels, not an arcuate delta.
- Statement 4 is incorrect: The Missouri River meets and empties into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, Missouri, not New Orleans (which lies thousands of miles downstream near the river’s final exit into the Gulf of Mexico).
