The Mississippi River has flown uphill on a few occasions depending on the sea level.
Measurements show sea level is higher at the equator than at the poles and the rising waters can sometimes push the river’s waters back.
The Mississippi River appears like its flowing uphill
But rising waters are a constant in the case of the flowing area of the river and this makes it one of the rivers that flow slightly uphill.
There’s a 4-mile difference between the source of the river and the sea level. But the unusual aspect here is that the sea is 4 miles higher not 4 miles lower than its source, Lake Itasca.
By the simple law of physics, the Mississippi River could not flow as gravity is against it. So what makes it flow? It’s the centrifugal force of the Earth’s rotation that keeps this river flowing into the sea.
The centrifugal force of the Earth
Interestingly, if the Earth would stop rotating, the centrifugal force would lower the sea level and the river would standstill.
The centrifugal force of the Earth makes the sea level higher near the equator and lower near the North and the South Pole. This means that water rises more the faster the Earth spins at the center or the equator.
This centrifugal force is what maintains the flow of the Mississippi River. It’s what drives the water from a height of 1400 feet which in reality is around 0 feet from its source to the sea.
The river has been reported as to flow uphill a few times in history, but it is technically flowing uphill all days of the year, even if this uphill climb is not more than 4 miles, which might as well appear as the flat ground from above.
