Acid Rain

This is a picture of what acid rain has done to stonework over the time period of 1908 to 1968. Acid rain is a mixture of wet and dry deposition from the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. It is caused by the compounds of sulpher dioxides and nitrogen oxides releasing into the air. These compounds rise high into the air and mix/react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to create acid rain. Some solutions are to use low sulfer coal, and to use scrubbers which remove 80-90% of the sulfer oxides.