Life of a Pollutant
This toxic metal was once used in paint and is a huge contaminant in soil and water.
What is Lead (Pb)?
This common process in water treatment involves adding chlorine or other chemicals to kill harmful microbes.
What is disinfection?
Some of the most famous Death Valley landscapes are covered in this fine, light-colored mineral, which collects in its basins, creating large “salt flats” of this mineral.
What is halite?
The Quad’s large oak and maple trees depend on this type of earth layer, which holds nutrients and water for plants.
What is topsoil?
This area of the Atlantic Ocean has long been associated with disappearing ships and planes, though many attribute it to natural phenomena like gas hydrates and strong currents.
What is the Bermuda Triangle?
Produced by the decay of uranium-238, this gas migrates through soils and often accumulates in poorly ventilated homes.
What is radon?
These two cations are responsible for the hardness.
What is Mg2+ and Ca2+
Some beaches in Hawaii are famously green because this mineral, also known as peridot in gemstone form, washes down from volcanic basalt.
What is olivine?
The St. Joseph River flows right by campus and drains into this lake.
What is Lake Michigan?
This bacterium caused a mysterious outbreak at a Philadelphia hotel in 1976 and thrives in warm water systems, including cooling towers.
What is Legionella?
In the stratosphere, ultraviolet light breaks down these compounds, releasing this specific atom that destroys ozone molecules.
What are CFCs?
This naturally occurring chemical, sometimes found in groundwater, can cause “blue baby syndrome” if levels are too high.
What is nitrate?
This geologic layer restricts groundwater flow between aquifers, allowing only slow seepage through it.
What is an aquitard?
Notre Dame sits in northern Indiana, which is underlain by this type of glacial deposit, leftover from the last Ice Age.
What is glacial till?
This was how the Starfish Prime test, a high-altitude nuclear detonation, caused outages 900 miles away in Hawaii.
What is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP)?
These toxic chlorinated compounds were released during Agent Orange production and are known for causing severe health effects even at parts-per-trillion concentrations.
What are dioxins?
The solubility of calcium carbonate in water depends heavily on this law, which relates solubility to the partial pressure of CO₂.
What is Henry's Law?
The rare boxwork formations in Wind Cave National Park form when acidic water dissolves this surrounding rock, leaving behind calcite veins in a honeycomb lattice.
What is limestone?
This treatment strategy is applied to the dorm’s hot water lines, which results in better skin and scalp health for students and less buildup on shower heads.
What is water softening?
Found in warm freshwater lakes and poorly chlorinated pools, this single-celled amoeba can enter the brain through the nose, causing the deadly disease primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM)? (please give scientific name for full points, common name for half)
What is Naegleria fowleri?
This element causes the “Itai-Itai” disease in Japan.
What is cadmium?
This equation, derived from the acid dissociation constant, relates pH to pKa and the ratio of conjugate base to acid in a buffer system.
What is the Henderson-Hasselbach Equation?
In an underground Mexican chamber, located in the Naica mine, this crystal fills the space with massive crystals—some over 30 ft long—and is so hot and humid (≈ 58 °C and ~99% humidity) that unprotected explorers can only stay for minutes.
What is gypsum?
Some campus building foundations rest on bedrock formed during this geologic period, roughly 420 million years ago.
What is Devonian?
In 2006, this former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, died in London after being poisoned with a highly radioactive substance. (half points for elemet, all points for isotope)
What is polonium-210?