What is Acid Rain? | National Geographic

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

What is acid rain? Acid rain is any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids. It can occur in the form of snow, fog, and even dry materials that settle to earth.

Most acid rain is caused by human activities. When people burn fossil fuels, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the atmosphere. These gases react with water, oxygen, and other substances to form sulfuric and nitric acid. Winds may spread these acidic solutions over hundreds of miles.

After it falls to earth, acid rain enters water systems as runoff and sinks into the ground. This can make water toxic to prey, fish, clams, and other aquatic animals. The rest of the food chain, including non-aquatic species such as birds, is often affected as well.

Acid rain also harms forests by damaging trees' leaves, robbing the soil of essential nutrients, and making it hard for trees to take up water. By designing cleaner power plants and using fewer fossil fuels, we can reduce the number of pollutants that create acid rain.

[Music]
[Music]

Invasive Species 101 | National Geographic

SPOOKED DOG! And More ... IMG! #29

View All

Why I Founded an Ocean Exploration Organization

When I was growing up, Jac Kisto had a big effect on my life. Fast forward, I learned how to dive. Um, and then about 11 years ago, I bought an ocean exploration vehicle. It’s a two-man submersible that goes down 1,000 meters, and I knew that I could give…

Confidence interval simulation | Confidence intervals | AP Statistics | Khan Academy

The goal of this video is to use this scratch pad on Khan Academy, that was written by Khan Academy user Charlotte Allen, in order to get a better intuitive sense of confidence intervals. So, we’re here; we’re dealing with a gumball machine where a certa…

Mechanical waves and light | Waves | Middle school physics | Khan Academy

Let’s talk about waves. So, let’s imagine that you were to take a string and attach it at one end to a wall, and then on the other end, you were to wiggle it up and down. Well, then you would have made a wave. You would see a pattern that looks like this.…

Seasons | The Earth-sun-moon system | Middle school Earth and space science | Khan Academy

In this video, we’re gonna think about why we have seasons on Earth like summer and fall and winter and spring. Now, one theory that some folks might have is maybe it’s due to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. We know that the Earth orbits the S…

Telling time to the nearest minute: labeled clock | Math | 3rd grade | Khan Academy

Let’s look at this clock and see if we can tell what time is shown on it. First thing, when we look at a clock, we have two hands, and that’s because time is told in two parts. Time is told in hours; that’s part, and on a clock, the hours are represented…

Example: Describing a distribution | AP Statistics | Khan Academy

Sometimes in life, like say on an exam in particular, like an AP exam, you might be asked to describe or compare a distribution. So we’re going to get an example of doing that right over here. Sometimes in life, say on an exam, especially on something lik…

What is Acid Rain? | National Geographic

More Articles