Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction that begins when compounds like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. These substances can rise very high into the atmosphere, where they mix and react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form more acidic pollutants, known as acid rain.
What is acid rain explain its effects?
Acid rain results when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents. The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water and other materials before falling to the ground.
What are 3 effects of acid rain?
The effects of acid rain:
- (1) The most basic microscopic organisms such as plankton may not be able to survive.
- (2) If ocean temperature increases, the growth of coral reefs will be affected.
- water to limestone shell.
- (3) Other ecosystems such as forests and desert will also be harmed.
What are 5 causes of acid rain?
Human activities leading to chemical gas emissions such as sulfur and nitrogen are the primary contributors to acid rain. Factories, power generations facilities, and automobiles are the chief emitters of sulfur and nitrogen gases.
What are causes and effects of acid rain? – Related Questions
Is acid rain harmful to humans?
While acid rain cannot harm humans directly, the sulfur dioxide that creates it can cause health problems. Specifically, sulfur dioxide particles in the air can encourage chronic lung problems, like asthma and bronchitis.
What pH is acid rain?
Normal, clean rain has a pH value of between 5.0 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic. However, when rain combines with sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides—produced from power plants and automobiles—the rain becomes much more acidic. Typical acid rain has a pH value of 4.0.
What are natural causes of acid rain?
Acid rain can be formed by natural causes, such as volcanic eruptions. More commonly, however, acid rain is due to human activities. Burning fossil fuels, manufacturing, oil refineries, electricity generation, and vehicles all release sulfur and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere.
What are 5 things that can be done to reduce acid rain?
Conserve Energy
- Turn off lights, computers, televisions, video games, and other electrical equipment when you’re not using them.
- Encourage your parents to buy equipment that uses less electricity, including lights, air conditioners, heaters, refrigerators, and washing machines.
- Try to limit the use of air conditioning.
What are 3 ways to reduce acid rain?
What are three ways to reduce acid rain? Alternative energy sources should be used, such as solar and wind power. Renewable sources of energy are helping to reduce acid rain, as they produce much fewer emissions. There are other electricity sources as well, such as nuclear power, hydropower, and geothermal energy.
What causes acid rain quizlet?
What causes acid rain? Acid deposition is caused when sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are emitted into our atmosphere. These chemicals SO2 and NOx, react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form both sulphuric and nitric acids.
What are the 10 effects of acid rain?
The ecological effects of acid rain are most clearly seen in aquatic environments, such as streams, lakes, and marshes where it can be harmful to fish and other wildlife. As it flows through the soil, acidic rain water can leach aluminum from soil clay particles and then flow into streams and lakes.
Which region is the most affected by acid rain?
Some acid rain occurs naturally, but sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from smokestacks combine with rain to make sulfuric and nitric acid in amounts that harm the environment. The region of the United States most harmed by acid rain is the East Coast, including the Appalachian Mountains and the Northeast.
What region is least affected by acid rain?
1 Answer. The region of the United States with the lowest pH values found in rainwater (acid rain) is NORTH EAST.
Can acid rain burn your skin?
Something with a pH value of 7, we call neutral, this means that it is neither acidic nor alkaline. Very strong acids will burn if they touch your skin and can even destroy metals. Acid rain is much, much weaker than this; it is never acidic enough to burn your skin.
Which country has the most acid rain?
Acid rain erodes most building materials as well as crops, leading eventually to human consumption. Rain traditionally slacks off from September on. China is the world’s biggest sulfur dioxide polluter, with 25.49 million tons discharged in 2005, up 27 percent from 2000.
Where is acid rain common?
Acid rain is responsible for severe environmental destruction across the world and occurs most commonly in the North Eastern United States, Eastern Europe and increasingly in parts of China and India.
Who discovered acid rain?
The phrase acid rain was first used in 1852 by Scottish chemist Robert Angus Smith during his investigation of rainwater chemistry near industrial cities in England and Scotland. The phenomenon became an important part of his book Air and Rain: The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology (1872).
How do we stop acid rain?
HOW TO AVOID ACID RAIN?
- Filter and detoxify the water used by the factories before returning it to the rivers.
- Reduce the emission of pollutant gases by industry.
- Encourage the production and use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
- Reduce the energy consumption of factories and companies.
How did acid rain stop?
The acid rain problem in Europe and North America has largely abated because of stronger SO2 and NOx emission controls, such as the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970, the Canada–United States Air Quality Agreement in 1991, and similar measures in Europe.
What Colour is acid rain?
When you add acid, bromothymol blue turns yellow; when you add a base (like sodium sulfite), it turns blue. Green means neutral (like water).
When did acid rain start?
It began in the 1950s when Midwest coal plants spewed sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air, turning clouds–and rainfall–acidic. As acid rain fell, it affected everything it touched, leaching calcium from soils and robbing plants of important nutrients.
