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But if the gasoline evaporates, doesn't it just rain down again later? It still has to go somewhere. Or do we just have ever-increasing gasoline clouds? EDIT
by Judgmentality 6y ago
But if the gasoline evaporates, doesn't it just rain down again later? It still has to go somewhere. Or do we just have ever-increasing gasoline clouds?
EDIT: Thank you to everyone for the informative responses.
- fuzzfactor 6y ago>do we just have ever-increasing gasoline clouds? Well, not quite. It does remain in the atmosphere as it dissipates and is diluted, but the whole time even at the source its concentration is usually too low to condense. It just becomes air pollution, categorized as Air Toxics although some of the same natural hydrocarbons are referred to as "Unburned Hydrocarbons" when they are emitted after incomplete automotive combustion.
- nate_meurer 6y agoNo, volatile organics are quickly degraded by sunlight and oxygen. The atmospheric half-life of mid-length aliphatic hydrocarbons such as octane is less than a week. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that only a small portion of evaporated volatiles is scrubbed out of the air by precipitation. The people living around that spill are going to be breathing some nasty shit for the foreseeable future.
- csours 6y agoIt turns into smog, partially. It will condense on surfaces, and some fungus and bacteria will consume it, or its products of decomposition eventually. Some of it goes into peoples and animal's lungs, etc
- Robotbeat 6y agoYup. And around 1% of the volume of gasoline is benzene, which is wonderful. I hate the smell of the stuff. Since going electric, I hate the smell of gas stations and avoid going to them for any reason.
- robocat 6y agoEvaporated gasoline would be classified as a VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) AFAIK - but certainly that is a good keyword to use to look for the environmental/atmospheric effects.