 Louisiana's Delta region is a national resource, providing much of this country's shrimp and other fish products as well as oil and natural gas, but many of the wetlands which serve as spawning grounds for its major fish crops are rapidly disappearing. What makes the situation even more striking is that other parts of this same shoreline are actually growing. It's this dual set of circumstances that has caught the attention of geologists Doug Rickman from NASA's Stennis Space Center and Louisiana State University's Oscar Hugh. Their focus today is a part of the coast where mud is accumulating and forming new land. The mud is sediment from rivers which flow into the gulf, but why it's washing ashore in certain areas and not in others is not well understood. That's why Hugh also leads expeditions into the gulf itself. The ocean floor in this area is essentially a broad featureless plain of sediment deposited by the Achaveliah River, a major branch of the Mississippi. Using a variety of techniques, Hugh and his colleagues map the muddy bottom to determine the patterns by which sediment moves and land is gained. To manage this environment we must understand how it naturally operates. Leving has gone on, there are locks into control structures going on, some of these have been very valuable and others have had very serious negative consequences. And as these environments change, as land is lost or land is gained or land erosion takes place, it has a serious effect on the economy here. This scanner called CAMS at the NASA Stennis Center provides another perspective on the problem. When installed on the Learjet and flown over the study site, CAMS produces imagery which, with Doug Rickman's expertise, clearly shows a growing delta at the mouth of the Achaveliah. The yellow areas are exposed mud flats. The image on the top is from March 1987, below it is the same area less than a year later. As Rickman illustrates with this geologic map of the state, sediment rich waters from the Mississippi being channeled down the Achaveliah are helping form this new delta. The problem to the east near New Orleans is that old delta regions levied off from the Mississippi to prevent flooding are dying. The goal is to reverse this trend or at least prevent further damage by better understanding sediment transport. Once we can understand that, then we can tell people if you do this kind of action, if you put a levy here, if you dike this, if you divert the water here, this is the impact you're going to have. This information could have applications in other coastal areas around the world and provide an important model for dealing with rising sea levels should global warming occur. Studying Louisiana's delta, NASA and LSU teaming up to preserve an important national resource.