Question

A. What chemicals are involved in the formation of acid rain? What are the sources of these chemicals? (2 points)

B. Describe the two types of acid rain. (2 points)
C. Why is acid rain a misleading term? What do you think would be a better term to describe this process? (2 points)

Answer 1

See explanation

Step-by-step explanation:

The to main chemicals that lead to acid rain are SOx and NOx. The major source of oxides of sulphur are power plants while the major source of oxides of nitrogen is the combustion of fossil fuels.

B. There are two types of acid rain; wet and dry. Wet type acid rain occurs when NOx and SOx combine with water vapour in the atmosphere and fall as precipitation while in dry type, wind deposits these acidic gases/matter on the surfaces of buildings, cars, trees etc. Rain water washes off these acidic deposits and the runoff is more acidic than the rain water.

C. Natural rain water has a pH of about 5.5 due to the fact that water dissolve CO2 in the atmosphere. This means that natural rain water is also slightly acidic. Rain water that dissolves SOx or NOx is often more acidic than these hence the term 'enhanced acid rain' may be used.

Again, since precipitation could be solid or liquid, the term 'acid deposition' is better.