Back when the Mississippi River flowed wild, its ever-changing waters moved soil across the North American continent. It picked up sand and dirt in the north and brought it to the southern areas of what we now call the state of Louisiana. Thousands of years later, man-made barriers called levees and flood-control systems contain the powerful river. But Louisiana officials are making plans to use the Mississippi’s ancient power to build new land as a way to ease the threat of rising seas. Engineers hope to remake eroded, low-lying lands by cutting into the levees and redirecting the water. The water holds a lot of small dirt particles, or sediment. The sediments can flow into coastal basins. When the sediment particles settle out of the water, they will slowly gather into soil.
