Delta-X, a new NASA airborne investigation, is preparing to embark on its first field campaign in the Mississippi River Delta in coastal Louisiana.
Beginning in April, the Delta-X science team, led by Principal Investigator Marc Simard of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will be collecting data by air and by boat to better understand why some parts of the delta are disappearing due to sea-level rise while other parts are not.
"Millions of people live on, and live from services provided by, coastal deltas like the Mississippi River Delta. But sea-level rise is causing many major deltas to lose land or disappear altogether, taking those services with them," Simard said. "We hope to be able to predict where and why some parts of the region will disappear and some are likely to survive."
Deltas typically form where large rivers enter the ocean or other bodies of water. As a river flows downstream, it carries with it sediment — small particles of silt, gravel and clay. By the time the river meets the other body of water, it is moving more slowly, allowing the sediment to sink to the bottom and accumulate to form a landmass, or delta.
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Image via NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
