why does the mississippi river flow up hill? (it really does)?
549724
It is downhill from start to mouth using sea level. However, there are rivers that do flow uphill at times. The continental divide is the reason for it. All water flows Easterly East of the continental divide. All water will flow Westerly West of the continental divide. I've been there and seen it, weird. \n\nAnother explanation would be the rotation of the earth. The water would be "pulled" toward the equator, where the largest mass of the earth's body would be.
9482
Imagine you have a drainage network of rivers, tributaries, and streams.  Now imagine one particular path of drainage, from head waters to delta.  If somehow (erosion, for example) somewhere along this path the water found a new shortcut to another part of the drainge system, then that water would have been "autocaptured".\n\nGet out a map of Illinois and the surrounding area.  The Illinos Waterway goes from Lake Michigan at Chicago to the Mississippi river at St. Louis.  The Mississipi river flows along the western border of Illinois.  Now look at the area between LaSalle, Ill. (on the Waterway) and Davenport, Iowa (by the Mississippi).  There is a set of streams in this area.  If they managed to link together and cause the Mississippi to be diverted near Davenport to LaSalle, then the Illinois Waterway would have captured the Mississippi.  Since these are part of the same drainage system, it would be called an autocapture.\n\nThe link below may explain better with illustrations. Look at pages 9 and 10:\nhttp://www.geography.wisc.edu/classes/geog320/network_and_basin.pdf
89280
yes.  a river will flow from higher terrain to lower terrain, independent of the compass direction.  two rivers near where i live that flow north are the Red River of the north (North Dakota/ Minnesota border) and the Nemadji River (northwest Wisconsin).
655188
I'll tell you why you car goings "up" when geared in neutral and why you can skateboard upwards. It is the architectural structuring of the hill. it's an illusion which makes you think you're going up. It's a .5% grade from one side to the other... it's a common engineering mistake which is why there are so many locations and so many "gravity hills." So to all of you out there who think its this crazy phenomenon and want to see if it's "real," it is. it is "real" because there's nothing weird about it. You're really going downhill but the .5% grade causes an illusion. HAHA. and it's definitely not "haunted." But I will say this... it is pretty cool.There are many such Gravity hills, and yes it's true, i have read in many forums and many people did try it there. Only in CA, like Corona, Livermore, Pasadena, and many many more. It's the common engineering mistake which is giving the rumour lovers to spread the ghost tales and all
1017010
It is more complicated than that.  So I'll just explain it all.  \n    What Makes Weather: "Weather" is caused by uneven heating of the earth's surface. Warm air is lighter than cold air, so it rises. Rising air would create a vacuum, but nature won't permit that, so surrounding air rushes in to fill the void that rising air is trying to create. The result is "wind". Also, its the warm air, rising air in one area, and the cold, descending air in a different area that creates differences in air pressure, i.e. barometric pressure, and at any given spot in the world this pressure is constantly changing. We humans seem a bit out of tune with barometric pressure changes, as they don't seem to affect us as much, at least outwardly. Do these pressure changes affect other land animals? Probably so. Some of this we can maybe document, but a lot of this is still open to further study. Most anglers agree that fish react considerably to changes in air pressure. Why? To understand the answer to that question, we should think of the "air" above as pushing down on a lake or river because of the air's weight. We now know that the weight of that air is constantly changing through air pressure changes. One key to why fish are so affected by air pressure changes is that when air pushes on the water there's no place for it to go, or at least there's very little water compression. Further, when air compresses down against a body of water, the pressure in the water itself is more (water pressure) than the difference than the air pressure has experienced because air will compress so much more. The "standard" for barometric pressure is 29.92 inches of mercury at sea level. This means "standard" air pressure will hold up 29.92 inches of mercury (if it's inverted just so). If air pressure increases, i.e. there's more weight on it, the pressure goes up, maybe to 29.99, 30.13, something like that. If air pressure goes down, there's less weight pressing down on it, so the numbers might read 29.85, 29.79, something like that. The thing to remember is that while you might imagine these fluctuation to be small (maybe because we can't feel them), fish like bass do feel these changes, perhaps dramatically because the air above is pressing down on the water where they live and the changes in the water pressure are much more dramatic than in the air.\n\nHow Pressure Affect Bass: Sorry for that lengthy explanation, but maybe this is the first time you've been able to better understand what barometric pressure is, as well as why fish are maybe more affected by these changes in their watery environment. One of the reasons bass are so challenging is that they seem more influenced by environmental changes like barometric pressure. These atmospheric pressure changes affect shallow water bass more than they do the deeper dwellers. It is thought that fish are able to monitor pressure changes via their swim bladder. We can assume that when barometric pressure goes up (higher), bass feel increased pressure on their swim bladder. The swim bladder might even compress. Does this make them feel lethargic, uncomfortable, less inclined to feed? Might high pressure even affect their equilibrium or sense of balance? Probably so on all counts, or at least that's what many people are theorizing at this moment. Recall how a bass reacts when it is kept out of the water longer than it normally take to release it? They turn on their side when you turn them loose. One plausible reason this might occur is that by being out of the watery environment for a while, their swim bladder expands considerably, fouling up their equilibrium. It probably takes a bass quite a long time to recover from this. Same deal with a marked air pressure change (up or down) which in turn affects the pressure in the water.\n\nHow To Check Your Local Pressure: What about the barometers you keep in your house? Are
418494
Generally, most river systems were formed on what were originally geological faults.  These areas were naturally lower then the surrounding land mass and as the surface water built up it would naturally drain towards the lowest point.\n\nAs to flooding this is usually where an excess of surface water has developed and the inability of the natural drain to remove or drain off the surface waters.  In this case the waters draining to the river bed simply rises to the point that the "bottle neck" can be over come and the excess water levels are removed from the area.  Once this happens the normal drain capacity and the normal inflow are balanced and the river returns to it's normal river bed.\n\nDave Cooke
373581
No.  The Mississippi starts somewhere in one of the Carolinas or something, hold on...\n\nIt starts in Minnesota, here's a link\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mississippi_River_map.png
208667
The headwaters for a stream may start at relatively high elevations fed by ice cold snow melt and springs.  Velocity is greatest moving down a mountain slope and purity may also be greatest in runoff water.  Further downstream, the velocity may be less due to a smaller gradient but volume may increase because of tributaries and additional springs.  Mineral contant may increase downstream because of contributions from groundwater.  Sediment and silt may become finer downstream due to less gradient and veloocity.  Temperature may increase downstream because of solar energy heating inflow.  Biological load may increase downstream as the stream passes fertile terrain with organic matter including decayed materials.  Polution may increase downstream because of the influence of man including farms and factories and municipal sewage treatment outflows.
219728
Maybe you have a large ore deposit beneath your location. This could generate a strong field that the polarized molecules would be attracted to. If it's closer to the upper part of the hill and big enough, it could also provide a small amount of gravitational attraction that could be pulling the water uphill.\n\nThe gravitational field of the Earth varies from place to place at the surface. We see this all the time when we take very sensitive readings. It is possible that a gravitational anomalies can be enough to cause odd effects at the surface.
247793
Originally, it was because the state had a great amount of farmland and free labor(slavery).  Also, the ease of shipping down the MS River was beneficial.\n\nNow, I don't believe it is not the King of the Mississippi economy.  Probably soybeans.  And Gambling of course.  MS is the 3rd largest gambling destination in the world behind Vegas and Atlantic City.
343628
figure the bottom, the top gets fed more water as it flows down river by rain, the bottom gets its water from runoff - the effect of the rain up-stream.
338480
That is a good & interesting question.\n\nIn all logical aspects, this should occur due to the fact that everything in nature trys to balance out. This includes things like air pressure; it travels from high to low areas of pressure. In the same manner, everything that is uphill or of higher elevation trys to balance w/ those that are of lower elevation; hence erosion & drainage basins in general.\n\nIn order for this to occur, a lot of sediment would have to be washed into the drainage basin's streams & rivers. That would take a very long time.\n\nAlthough I think the answer here has to do with the fact that the earth's crust rebounds in a process called isostatic adjustment.\n\nWhen material is removed from the crust to another location, weight is taken off of an area. The crust will readjust to the former height by rising slightly.\n\nIt's just like placing several blocks of wood in a container of water. As you take off one of the blocks, the rest of them will rise in response to the reduced load.\n\nThats my answer & I'm sticking to it.\n\n:)
891864
If I recall correctly, LH2 doesn't 'flow' uphill (that would be impossible because of gravity), but it can 'creep' uphill due to a combination of its low viscosity and capillary effect. \n\nTo see capillary effect, put a clear straw in a glass of water. You will see the 'meniscus' (the edges of the water level) in the straw distinctly above the level of the water in the glass. No 'flow' required.\n\nI've heard that liquid helium has a similar property.
303434
This Great Lake doesn't have tides like the ocean; however, periodically the water levels rise and fall by as much as one foot due to a phenomenon called a ‘seiche’ (SAYSH, a French word that means "to sway back and forth"). This happens when water piles up on one side of the lake because of wind or high barometric pressure and then shifts back to the other side. Small seiches occur all the time, but sometimes strong ones can cause ships to bang together in harbors, or leave them high and dry for a few minutes.
714393
The water's in a vapor form which makes it much much lighter than if it were in liquid form, and there are air currents within clouds that keep the vapor circulating around and are able to hold the water up against gravity.  It's when water vapor starts forming droplets that it gets too heavy for clouds and we get rain, hail, etc.
110991
The water comes from a point elevated far above the sink height (a reservoir in upstate NY).\n\nBecause its source is higher, the water will flow (downward)--even though the pipes might go 'up' a buiding. Its all about the conservation of energy laws you can learn about in physics.\n\nFrom the reservoir it is piped to the city, and it gets filtered and treated before it gets to the sink.\n\nThe sink valves hold it back until you open them, and let the force of the flow down your drain, where it goes out to the river.
600189
Water (rain, snow, dew, ...) which ends up higher than sea level will flow toward the sea if there is any possible path. Since even a mountainous 'bowl' is likely to have a porous bottom, or to fill enough to find an outlet, there will almost always be a flow to lower levels. \n\nFlowing water is not a neglibible force. It will, over geologic time move, dissolve, pulverize, and remove material. Freeze/thaw cycles contribute more than a bit; the Old Stone Face in new Hampshire in N America has recently fallen (literally) to this. Some of that material will be dropped downstream, filling in an existing channel. Spring floods (in places in which snow and ice accumulate on high ground) will provide an annual increase in this erosion, and if they break over channel banks, will accelerate the deposition process (eg, the Nile floods until the installation of dams to stop them). \n\nOver geologic time, a stream (or river) will fill channels repeatedly and will find new flow paths after doing so. What with dumping material from higher levels, and doing it in channels here and there across the gap between highlands, there will be a gradual acretion of soil in that gap. \n\nEventually, the flowing water, combined on occasion with wind and plant and animal soil processing (earthworms, for instance), there will be a more or less level filiing of the gap between highlands, with water flowing across it on the way to the sea. \n\nThat space, with a history more or less as sketched is a valley. Tehy can be narrow (a kilometer or less) or wide (several hundred kilometes). In fact, they can be so wide that it's not possible for a human to see both highlands between which the water flows at the same time. Valleys can also be very long if the highlands are arranged to permit. Consider the Nile, the Danube, the Volga, the Mississippi, or the Ganges. \n\nIn short, highlands erode, flatten out, and fill in the gaps between them. This can be seen in Britain (whose hills and mountains wer once higher) and in the North American Appalacians (whcih were once very very impressively tall). The N American Rockies, S American Andes, and Asian Himalyas are examples of the early stages in this process. Some millions of years hence, all three of these mountain ranges will be much lower and rounder.