Acid Precipitation
Sitting in your room late at night, you listen to the
gentle pittter-patter of the rain on your window. Ahh, so
soothing and relaxing. Have you ever really wondered what the rain is
really made of? Is that just water or is it acid slowly streaming down out
there? That rain you hear just might be acid rain, it could change the way you
live your life.
The commonly used terms “acid rain” and “acid precipitation” describe specific
forms of a type of pollution described generally as “acid deposition.” Harmful
gases that rise into the air mix with cloud moisture, sunlight, and oxidants.
There they chemically combine into dilute sulfuric and nitric acids, which fall
back to the earth. This is acid deposition.
