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EARTH Vietnam, Mekong River Delta -- Feb 1996 -- This southwest-looking, low-oblique file photograph shows the lower Mekong River and its vast delta. Rising on the Plateau of Tibet, the Mekong flows generally southeast for 2,600 miles (4,160 kilometers) and empties into the South China Sea through a large delta. The Mekong River Delta covers 75,000 square miles (194,250 square kilometers), and, with its many channels still depositing sediment, the delta continues to grow. The vast swampy delta, crisscrossed by many channels and canals, is one of the greatest rice-growing regions of Asia. Even though rainfall is heavy during the summer months, winters are dry and require irrigation for most of the rice-growing area. This river delta is one of several which may be subject to flooding as glaciers in the high Himalaya melt and swell Asia's major river systems. Scientists and the WWF say that the glaciers could disappear entirely in a few decades, leading to initial widespread flooding across the region and then droughts - as the glaciers normally feed river systems like the Mekong. Point Cau Mau, the southern tip of Vietnam, is visible southwest of the delta