Plaquemines Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, the parish seat is Pointe à la Hache and the largest community is Belle Chasse. The parish was formed in 1807.
Plaquemines Parish Courthouse
Plaquemines Parish President Keith Hinkley in September 2023
Mississippi River Delta
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The Mississippi River Delta is the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, southeastern United States. The river delta is a three-million-acre area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast. It is part of the Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana coastal plain, one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in the United States. The Mississippi River Delta is the 7th largest river delta on Earth (USGS) and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7 million acres of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S. The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin and drains about 41% of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second.
False-color image of the larger Mississippi River Delta
2001 Image of the active delta front before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed much of the delta in 2005
The Mississippi River Delta, showing the sediment plumes from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, 2001.
Mississippi Delta lobes Salé-Cypremort 4,600 years BP Cocodrie 4,600–3,500 years BP Teche 3,500–2,800 years BP St. Bernard 2,800–1,000 years BP Lafourche 1,000–300 years BP Plaquemine 750–500 years BP Balize 550 years