The Mississippi River discharges an average of 611,000 cubic feet of water per second, facilitating the transport of approximately half a billion tons of sediment into the Gulf of Mexico (Lutgens, Tarbuck and Tasa, 2014, p.88-89). When sediment reaches the lower Mississippi River, its deep, meandering channel carries mostly silt and clay, eroding the outer banks of its bends while depositing material within its bends. Furthermore, this type of erosion and deposition activity causes the formation of lakes, where the corners of the meandering curves closest to each other erode, creating new channels (National Geographic, 2015, par.3-4). The Mississippi River shapes Earth's landscapes