Louisiana - At a Glance
Location
Louisiana, shaped like a boot with the toe pointed eastward, is bounded on the north by Arkansas, on;the east by Mississippi, on the west by Texas, and on the south by the Gulf of Mexico. Somewhat larger than New York State, Louisiana has an area of 48,114 square miles, of which 3,593 square miles are covered by water.
Geology
Geologically, Louisiana is "new" consisting of marine and alluvial sediments deposited after the principal structural features of surrounding regions had assumed their final form. There are 11 interior salt domes in north Louisiana and not less than 100 salt domes in the coastal area. Salt domes, or plugs, are an important element in the origin of the south Louisiana oil fields.
Features of the state include pine hills, bluffs, prairies,
coastal marshes and alluvial plains. Rolling hill country, planted
with longleaf and
shortleaf pine commercial forests, is found in each of the upland
regions. Ranging in elevation from 100 to 300 feet in the southernmost
uplands, the hills rise to a maximum of a little more than 400
feet near the Arkansas boundary. Two high points west of the
Mississippi
rise above 440 feet in the north central area of the state.
The uplands slope gently toward the coast, the average incline being about two feet to the mile.
Except in the delta, the shoreline of southern Louisiana is
generally sandy; there are numerous sand and shell ridges extending
for miles parallel
to the shore either in close proximity to the Gulf or some distance
inland.
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River snakes south through the continental
United States from its source at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota,
entering the Gulf
of Mexico through a vast, fan-shaped delta in Louisiana.
The river travels for approximately 2,350 miles through a
great basin, draining 41 percent of the United States - all or
part of 31 states - and three
Canadian provinces for a total of 1,245 million square miles.
Waters from as far east as the state of New York and as far west
as Montana
contribute to flows in the lower river.
The Mississippi River has the fourth largest drainage basin in the world, exceeded in size only by the watershed of the Amazon, Congo and Nile rivers.
The average flow on the Mississippi downstream is approximately 4.3 million gallons per second.
This great river, the third longest in the world, has enormous
geologic impact upon the land through which it flows. The existing
Louisiana shoreline
is the result of the deposition of Mississippi River sediments
over a period of approximately 6,000 years, and of the action
on those soil deposits
by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Behind chenieres and islands on the Louisiana gulf coast and
extending from 10 to 60 miles inland are 6.5 million acres of
wetlands, or 40 percent
of the nation's marsh ecosystem.
Some delta building continues in Louisiana today. The Atchafalaya
River is the Mississippi's major tributary and carries a tremendous
load of silt.
Much of this silt is being deposited at the mouth of the river
and a new land mass is gradually taking form in northern Atchafalaya
Bay. Eventually,
as natural levees and interior marsh develops, the delta will
take on the physical appearance of the active delta at the mouth
of the Mississippi River.
Scientists have estimated that the new delta will contain approximately
192,000 acres and will extend out beyond Point au Fer Island
by the year 2020.
"Mud lumps" are small mud islands unique to the
mouths of the Mississippi River passes. They range up to 12 feet
in height and vary in diameter from
a few square feet to 20 acres. They are produced by geological
processes occurring at river mouths and consist of mostly sediments
of sandy silts and clay.
Gulf of Mexico
Fifth largest sea in the world, with a surface area
of 582,100 square miles and an average depth of 5,297 feet,
the Gulf supplies Louisiana with seafood and recreational
opportunities.
The Gulf collects about two-thirds of all waste material discharged into U.S. rivers.
Rivers and Bayous
The most important rivers in the state are the Mississippi, Red, Atchafalaya, Ouachita, Sabine and Pearl.
A peculiar feature of the many streams is that they run upon
a higher elevation than their floodplains. This is
especially true of the Mississippi, which meanders through Louisiana
between ridges build up by successive depositions of silt. The
river is of little
value, therefore, as a drainage channel for the state. Were it
not for a continuous line of levees, one-third of the state would
be flooded by the
Mississippi during high water periods. The largest bayous are
the Teche, Lafourche and Bouef.
Lakes
Louisiana has more than 150 natural lakes as well as the nation's
fourth-largest man-made lake, Toledo Bend Reservoir, which sprawls
70 miles
along the Louisiana-Texas border northwest of Leesville. The
reservoir covers 186,000 acres and has 1,200 miles of shoreline.
Three
classes of natural lakes occur in Louisiana. Coastal lagoons
are arms of the sea isolated behind barrier
beaches or surrounded by delta ridges. They
are found in the delta region of the state. Barataria Bay and
lakes
Pontchartrain, Maurepas and Salvador
are typical.
Oxbow lakes result from cut-off segments
of the Mississippi River
mainly above Baton Rouge to the Arkansas
border, usually in the
shape of a crescent and as wide as the
river from which they were cut off.
Climate
The weather in the coastal region is diverse. The moody Gulf
of Mexico is the state's weather-maker and gives Louisiana its
semi-humid subtropical
climate. Most of Louisiana is humid and subtropical. Snow rarely
falls in the southern sections, with only small snowfalls usually
recorded in the northern areas.
The statewide annual rainfall is about 56 inches a year, with
the northern regions averaging 46 inches and some of the southern
coastal parishes
averaging as high as 66 inches of rainfall a year.
The average annual temperature for the northern regions of Louisiana is 66 degrees, while 60 degrees is the annual temperature in the southern region.
The highest July average temperature in the northern regions
is 83 degrees, while in east central Louisiana - the "Florida
parishes" - the highest July
average is 81 degrees.
The lowest January average temperature in the north is 49 degrees, while in the southeast region, the lowest January average temperature is 57 degrees.
The average number of days each year with temperatures 90
degrees and above is 102 days in the northern regions, 86 days
in the southwestern
area and 57 days in New Orleans.
Colleges/Universities
| Centenary College | Shreveport | |
| Dillard University | New Orleans | |
| Grambling State University | Grambling | |
| Louisiana College | Pineville | |
| Louisiana State University | Baton Rouge | |
| LSU Medical Center | New Orleans | |
| Louisiana Tech University | Ruston | |
| Loyola University | New Orleans | |
| McNeese State University | Lake Charles | |
| Nicholls State University | Thibodaux | |
| Northwestern State University | Natchitoches | |
| Southeastern Louisiana University | Hammond | |
| Southern University | Baton Rouge | |
| Tulane University | New Orleans | |
| University of Louisiana | Lafayette | |
| University of Louisiana | Monroe | |
| University of New Orleans | New Orleans | |
| Xavier University | New Orleans |