Seungjun Lee

Mr. Youell

Science 9A

5/5/2016

Acid Rain blog - science

Did you see the statues in tourist attractions that look as if they were melting down? Look at the first picture, this is a statue made out of limestone and when it is contacted by the acid rain, the chemical reaction takes place to almost, melt it down.

In many places, it rains acid rain. And acid rain can damage trees by damaging its leaves or make rivers and lake too acidic and kill the marine creatures in it. But, what are the acid rain, how are they made, and how do we know if it rains acid rain at your place?

Acid rain is rain that is acidic. More acidic than normal rain, that has pH level of 4.4 or less. It is quite acidic when compared to normal

rain which is usually around 5.6 of pH level where 6 is neutral.

When fossil fuels are burnt, it creates two kinds of gases and those are; carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. Carbon monoxide will decrease the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry if inhaled. If inhaled, it can also cause tiredness, unconsciousness and death. Sulfur dioxide is what makes the acid rain. When it is dissolved in clouds, it makes the rain acidic.

A natural way that you can tell whether your place rains acid rain or not by looking at the plants called lichens. They grow on rocks or tree bark and they absorb water and nutrients from rain. Some of the gases dissolved in the acid rain can damage lichen like sulfur dioxide which will prevent the lichen from growing. From seeing how much the lichen is grown, you can tell whether the rain is acidic or not. The lichen in neutral rain will be very healthy and bushy. Leafy ones are indicating that the rain is polluted by a little and crusty lichens mean that the rain is very acidic and contains a lot of sulfur dioxide.

Nowadays, there aren’t that many new statues being built, but many statues have been broken down, and the acid rain is corrosive with other things as well, so it also destroys many other things like buildings, so, we should think about that and try our best to decrease the amount of pollution as much as possible.

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/znsk7ty/revision