Acid Rain :: essays research papers fc

Acid RainWhat is acid rain water supply? Acid rain is not a recent phenomenon. In the 17th century, scientists noted the tired of(p) effects that industry and sulfurous pollution was having on vegetation and people. However, the endpoint acid rain was not coined until two centuries later when Angus metalworker published a book called Acid Rain in 1872 ( Zumdahl 173).Acidic pollutants lav be deposited from the atmosphere to the Earths surface in wet and dry forms. The common line to describe this process is acid deposition. The term acid precipitation is apply to specifically describe wet forms of acid pollution that can be found in rain, sleet, snow, fog, and cloud vapor. An acid can be outlined as any substance that when dissolved in water dissociates to engender corrosive hydrogen ions. The acidity of a substances dissolved in water is commonly measured in terms of pH. According to this measurement outdo solutions with pHs less than 7 argon described as being acidic, tra nce a pH greater than 7.0 is considered alkaline. Precipitation normally has a pH between 5.0 to 5.6 because of natural atmospheric reactions involving carbon dioxide. Precipitation is considered to be acidic when its pH falls below 5.6. Some sites in eastern marriage America have precipitation with pHs as low as 2.3 or about 1000 times more acidic than natural ( Zumdahl 171).      whizz of the main causes of acid rain is sulphur dioxide. Natural sources, which emit this gas, be volcanoes, sea spray, rotting vegetation and plankton. However, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are largely to be blamed for approximately one-half of the emissions of this gas in the world. When sulphur dioxide reaches the atmosphere, it oxidizes to first form a sulphate ion. It then becomes sulphuric acid as it joins with hydrogen atoms in the rail line and falls back down to earth. Oxidation occurs mostly in clouds and specially in heavily polluted air where oth er compounds such as, ammonia and ozone help to catalyze the reaction, converting more sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid.      One of the sway effects of acid rain is on lakes and its aquatic ecosystems. There are several routes through which acidic chemical substances can calculate the lakes. Some chemical substances exist as dry particles in the air while others enter the lakes as wet particles such as rain, snow, sleet, hail, dew or fog. In addition, lakes can almost be thought of as the "sinks" of the earth, where rain that falls on land is drained through the sewage systems eventually makes their way into the lakes.