The map is an artistic rendering depicting attributes of the Mississippi River watershed — not an exact match.
A map shared on X , TikTok , Facebook and Threads , among other platforms, in August 2024 claimed to show the Mississippi River and its tributaries. One popular example was shared to X ( archived ) on Aug. 22 and had more than 23.6 million views at the time of this publication.
Snopes was unable to determine by whom or for what purpose the map was made, or what data was used in its creation. However, a reverse image search revealed that it began circulating as early as 2022 .
We compared the map in question to those published in scientific literature depicting the watershed, drainage basin and tributaries of the Mississippi River. Though there were similarities between them, they were not an exact match.
For these reasons, we have rated the authenticity of the map and what it's said to represent as "Mostly True."
Drennon said a map published online by the nonprofit group American Rivers is more representative of the watershed.
A side-by-side comparison below shows similarities and differences between the two maps. For one, the American Rivers map (on the left) shows the structure of Mississippi River tributaries, or the small rivers and streams that eventually flow into larger rivers, also known as the mainstream. The American Rivers map specifically names each major tributary, while the map shared on social media appears to show smaller water features that stem from the tributaries.
(American Rivers, X user @locati0ns)
Snopes next compared the map in question to others published in academic publications. In 2016, for example, NASA published the below visualization that depicts "flows along the rivers of the Mississippi watershed." (The animation does not show the actual flow rates of the rivers.)
According to NASA, the above visual was created using data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey.
"By assembling these directions into streamflows, it is possible to trace the path of water from every point of the area to the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico," NASA wrote on its website. "This animation starts with the points furthest from the Gulf and reveals the streams and rivers as a steady progression towards the mouth of the Mississippi until all the major rivers are revealed."
USGS also published the map below in a 2013 conference paper titled " The Mississippi River: A Place for Fish ." It depicts the watershed of the Mississippi River, which includes two Canadian provinces and 41% of the conterminous United States, also known as the "Lower 48." The terrain of the landscape can also be seen in this map, which appears to connect the rivers and their tributaries in a manner that resembles the map shared on social media.
("The Mississippi River: A Place For Fish")
The Mississippi River is part of the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin, or MARB. Two maps published in the scientific journal Frontiers Environmental Science show this "hydrologically defined system," with major tributaries in blue and their associated drainage areas in green. The maps below were created using the USGS 2019 National Land Cover Database , which provides nationwide data on land cover and land cover change. Both maps below share similar characteristics and features to the map shared on social media.
(Frontiers Environmental Science)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the MARB region is the third-largest in the world, after the Amazon and Congo basins. Another map published by the agency shows the "expanse of the Mississippi River Basin" as it is "joined by hundreds of tributaries, including those from the Ohio and Missouri Rivers."
Again, there are apparent similarities between the map below and the viral map shared on social media, including the major rivers shown and the general shape of the watershed and its basin.
(EPA)
"Water from parts or all of 31 states drains into the Mississippi River, and creates a drainage basin over 1,245,000 square miles in size. Before reaching the Gulf, the Mississippi meets up with its distributary, the Atchafalaya River," the EPA wrote on its website.
At 2,350 miles long, the Mississippi is the second-longest river in North America, behind its biggest tributary, the Missouri River, which is 100 miles longer, according to the National Park Service .
The Mississippi-Missouri River combination (3,710 miles) is the fourth-longest in the world, behind the Nile (4,160 miles), the Amazon (4,000 miles) and the Yangtze (3,964 miles).
Sources:
Blvd, Mailing Address: 111 E. Kellogg, et al. Mississippi River Facts - Mississippi National River & Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm . Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.
McLellan, Eileen L., et al. "Improving Ecosystem Health in Highly Altered River Basins: A Generalized Framework and Its Application to the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin." Frontiers in Environmental Science, vol. 12, Feb. 2024. Frontiers, https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332934 .
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