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A Landsat image of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana, a giant bird’s foot shape protruding into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River deposits sediment into the ocean and new land appears – this has happened most conspicuously along the south-western tip of the delta. Left to their own devices, rivers change course over time and the Mississippi is no exception. Geologists surmise that the Mississippi changed course numerous times over the past 10,000 years, wandering across a roughly 320-kilometre (200-mile) range along the Gulf Coast.

Credit:NASA/JPL.