5163 x 3456 px | 43,7 x 29,3 cm | 17,2 x 11,5 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
21 juin 2007
Lieu:
Montana, USA
Informations supplémentaires:
The Missouri River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the United States. The Missouri begins at the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin rivers in Montana, and flows into the Mississippi north of St. Louis, Missouri. At 2, 341 mi in length, it drains about one-sixth of the North American continent. The Missouri in its original natural meandering state was the longest river in North America. At its confluence, the Missouri nearly doubles the volume of the Mississippi, accounting for 45 percent of the flow at St. Louis in normal times and as much as 70 percent of the flow during some droughts. It is the second-largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi, trailing the Ohio. The river is nicknamed "Big Muddy" and also "Dark River" because of the high silt content. The river meanders from bluff to bluff in the flat Midwestern states, leading to the nickname the "Wide Missouri." The headwaters of the Missouri are in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, near the small town of Three Forks, rising in the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers. The longest headwaters stream, and thus the Missouri's hydrologic source, likely begins at Brower's Spring, which flows to the Jefferson by way of several other named streams. From the confluence of its main tributaries near the city of Three Forks, the Missouri flows north through mountainous canyons, emerging from the mountains near Great Falls, where a large cataract historically marked the navigable limit of the river. It flows east across the plains of Montana into North Dakota, then turns southeast, flowing into South Dakota, and along the north and eastern edge of Nebraska, forming part of its border with South Dakota and all of its border with Iowa.
