Acid+Rain

Khairi Marsh 6/7/10 Chemistry Weather Unit __**ACID RAIN**__ 

Acid Rain is a form of precipitation that is acidic, which rarely occurs. It can be harmful to plants and sea or aquatic animals. Acid rain is a mixture of ammonium, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. This mixture combines with water particles in the atmosphere system. This toxic rain can occur from natural causes like lighting strikes and the eruptions of volcanoes, that release sulfur dioxide. Acid rain was discovered in 1852, but it wasn't till the 1960s that scientist actually started to do research on the study.   Areas in Europe, China, and Russia have this problem mainly from their industries. Acid Rain mostly occurs in Poland, North to Scandinavia, Eastern Third of the U.S, South East of Canada. Place like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria are becoming more at risk to this toxic rain. In the U.S, Congress have passed a number of acts to establish research on the effects of Acid Rain and how to control or reduce pollution throughout the world. This substance had caused erosion to monuments, caused cancer among humans, and infects the soil and fertilizer for plants. Both the lower pH and higher aluminium components in the surface of the water results in damage to fish and other aquatic animals. At pH's lower than 5 most fish eggs will not hatch and lower pH's can kill adult fish.  *This chart show that not all fish, shellfish, or the insects that they eat can tolerate the same amount of acid

As lakes and rivers become more acidic, wild life is reduced or becoming extinct. Acid rain has eliminated insect life and some fish species, including the brook trout in some lakes, streams, and creeks in areas, such as the Adirondack Mountains of the United States. In the United States, many coal-burning power plants use a gas filter or FGD, which removes sulfur-containing gases from their stack gases. FGD is used as a wet scrubber which is used in the U.S. and many other countries. A wet scrubber is basically a reaction tower with a fan that extracts hot smoke stack gases from a power plant into the tower.

Chemical Process of Acid Rain: In the gas phase sulfur dioxide is oxidized: SO2 + OH· → HOSO2· Then: HOSO2· + O2 → HO2· + SO3 In the presence of water, sulfur trioxide is converted to sulfuric acid: SO3 (g) + H2O (l) → H2SO4 (l) Nitrogen dioxide reacts with OH to form a new acid: NO2 + OH· → HNO3

WORK CITIED
 * www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=acid%20rain&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
 * http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what/index.html
 * http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/global-warming/acid-rain-overview/
 * http://www.eoearth.org/article/acid_rain
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain