What Is Acid Rain?
Acid rain, as the name suggests, is precipitation, usually in the form of rain, that is acidic. This usually happens when high levels of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide make the precipitation harmful to the environment, infrastructure, and even people in the area.
Rain is officially designated as acid rain when it has a pH level below 5. pH is a scale that measures how acidic or basic a substance is, ranging from 0 to 14 and using decimals (meaning, for example, a rating of 5.6 is possible). However, contrary to what most people would intuitively expect, higher numbers are more basic, with smaller numbers being more acidic. This means the most acidic stuff is usually rated below 3, and compounds rated 10 or higher, such as ammonia and bleach. Pure water is directly in the middle, being rated 7. Usually, being too basic can also be dangerous; the further from 7 something is, the more dangerous it is.
How Does Acid Rain Form?
Acid rain forms when large amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide get into the atmosphere and mix with clouds. When precipitation begins, these acidic chemicals fall with the precipitation, usually contained within the water falling from the sky. If it is acidic enough for the pH level to be below 5, it is categorised as acid rain. Since water naturally has a pH value of 7, it is possible for the rain to contain some acidic elements without being considered acid rain.
Is Acid Rain Natural?
Acid rain can be natural to an extent. Things like massive volcanic eruptions (such as the one from Mount Toba) and forest fires release massive amounts of acidic elements, which can make rain slightly acidic. This is the reason that rain is usually rated at around 6 on the pH scale, despite pure distilled water being a 7. However, rain usually becomes more acidic from man-made pollution.
Why Is Acid Rain Dangerous?
Acid rain can damage the environment and human-created cities. Some of the effects of acid rain are below:
- Acidic places can kill wildlife. Even if an animal can survive in an acidic environment, it might not be able to hatch properly, or maybe its food can not survive, leading the animals to starve. For this reason, many aquatic lakes don’t have fish at all.
- Acid rain can kill plants. While acid rain can harm some plants and damage the outside of the plant, the damage acid rain does to the soil is where plants and trees really suffer. Acidic substances can remove nutrients from the soil, causing plants to deteriorate in health slowly.
- Breathing in chemicals can cause or worsen asthma and other illnesses.
- Acidic rain can damage infrastructure.
