The Great Red River Raft and its Sedimentological Implications - Reconstructing Human-Landscape Interactions: Interpreting Desert and Fluvial Environments - page 43

92°00 91°45 91°30

92°15 W

31°15 N

Mississippi Rive r
meander belt 1

31°

Red River
crevasse sp lay

30°45

Mississippi River
meander belt 1

0 10 mi

30°30

0 15 km

Active Holocene
meander belt

Abandoned Holocene
meander belt

Holocene
backswamp

Pleistocene
terrace

Pleistocene
upland

Active
course

Abandoned
course

Fig. 7 The Red River avulsed northeast, reoccupied an abandoned channel of Mississippi River
meander belt 2, and joined the Mississippi River (Modified from Aslan et al. 2005 )

and post-depositional weathering of the surficial sediments of the floodplain
(Albertson et al. 1996, The red river raft: geomorphic response, ''unpublished'').
Geomorphic changes continue to alter the floodplain of the Red River. The
Atchafalaya River captured the flow of the Red River in prehistoric time and is
preparing to capture the Mississippi River, making the Atchafalya Delta the
primary course to the Gulf of Mexico (Fisk 1952 ; Autin and Pearson 1993 ).