Mobile River

Mobile River
Mobile-Alabama-Coosa River system
Location
Country	United States (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee)
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Confluence of Tombigbee and Alabama rivers
• elevation	10.5 m (34 ft)
Mouth
• location	Mobile Bay, at Mobile, Alabama
Length	72 km (45 mi)
Basin size	115,000 km2 (44,000 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	67,000 cubic feet per second (1,900 m3/s) Min: 9,959 cubic feet per second (282.0 m3/s) Max: 318,468 cubic feet per second (9,018.0 m3/s)[1] Sediment Discharge: 4.5 million tons/year[2] 12,300 tons sediment/day (average)

The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long (72 km) river drains an area of 44,000 square miles (110,000 km²) of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the fourth-largest of primary stream drainage basins entirely in the United States. The river has historically provided the principal navigational access for Alabama. Since construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, it also provides an alternative route into the Ohio River watershed.

The Tombigbee and Alabama River join to form the Mobile River approximately 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Mobile, along the county line between Mobile and Baldwin counties. The combined stream flows south, in a winding course. Approximately 6 miles (10 km) downstream from the confluence, the channel of the river divides, with the Mobile flowing along the western channel. The Tensaw River, a bayou of the Mobile River, flows alongside to the east, separated from 2 to 5 miles (3 to 8 km) as they flow southward. The Mobile River flows through the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta and reaches Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico just east of downtown Mobile.