Friday, July 3, 2015

Areas with the most Acid Rain in the U.S.

I used to hear more about acid rain, but I guess the world has so many issues going on at the same time, that it is hard for any certain one to stay in the spotlight. Anyway, acid rain is not limited to the U.S., of course, but I was curious about which areas in this country had the most. Oh, if you don't know, acid rain is an acidic precipitation of any form (rain, sleet, snow, fog, whatever), that is primarily produced by the release of sulfur dioxides & nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere that react & mix with existing atmospheric moisture. The main sources of such things are human pollution - like electrical power plants, industrial boilers, big smokestacks, automobile emissions, and so on. Natural causes are from events like volcanic eruptions, for example.
The term 'acid rain' was first coined by an English chemist, way back in 1872. I had to look up what his name was: Robert Angus Smith
Anyway, if you are curious about this subject, feel free to go here:
https://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Acid_rain

I included an image for this post that shows a rough estimate of the levels of acid rain in the U.S., 4 years ago. Yep, the Northeast looks like the worst areas for this type of precipitation. Hey, you should have seen the one from 20 years ago! It was a bit worse, nationwide, believe it or not. Anyway, don't drink the rainwater from certain areas unless you are really thirsty; ha!

Update (2021): It was harder than I thought to find some updated maps (with actual dates) on this subject, so I mainly just tried to find some of the global (not just the U.S.) hotspots for acid rain. It currently seems that the primary areas in the world that have the most of this acidic precipitation are parts of China, northern Europe, and the eastern part of the United States - with more still being in the northeast.
---End of Update

Here is another post that involves raining, but more so in an otherworldly fashion: "Raining Diamonds on Planet Neptune & Uranus." 

Image Credit: Is already provided in the link above.

---End of Post "Areas with the most Acid Rain in the U.S."

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