Acid Rain Essay

605 Words3 Pages
Acid rain is the umbrella term for three types of acidic precipitation which are: Acid rain of course, Acid snow and Acid fog. According to National Geographic.com “Acid rain describes any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids. It can also occur in the form of snow, fog, and tiny bits of dry material that settle to Earth.”. My definition for acid rain is that it is any kind of precipitation that drops to the earths surface with a higher than usually acidic level. This weather phenomenon is caused by many things but the three main ones are: Chemical reaction in the atmosphere, Natural sources and Human imperfections. The chemical reactions that happen in the atmosphere are caused by carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (these last two gasses mainly cause the acidic level to rise) all caused by the burning of fossil fuels. When the gasses rises into the atmosphere they mix and react with water droplets, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other noble gasses to form more acidic precipitation, known as acid rain (snow, fog or hail). This process happens pretty quickly because sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides dissolve very easily in water and are very light gasses so they are easily carried. Acid rain is also caused by Natural sources such as the volcanic eruptions, forest fires, lightening and bacterial decomposition all releasing nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. This is just another way acid rain takes part. The last cause I mentioned was Human imperfections, such as the pollution from our automobiles. Scientist believes that automobiles produce about half of the world's nitrogen oxide which I again remind you is one of prime gasses causing acid rain. Other things we do also help this process such as spraying insect repellent, body spray such as colognes and perfumes, all these little things assist in the downpour of
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