Pour Vinegar onto Beach Sand from the Caribbean and the Result

question 154

Multiple Choice

Pour vinegar onto beach sand from the Caribbean and the result is a lot of froth and bubbles.Pour vinegar onto beach sand from California,however,and nothing happens.Why?

• A)Beaches in tropical climates generally have remnants of volcanic deposit not present in California sand.These deposits contain soil with organic residue.Vinegar's acetic acid reacts with organic matter.
• B)The pH of the warm sands of tropical waters is well into the basic range,unlike the beach sand in California.Therefore,the acidic vinegar reacts with Caribbean beach sand but not with sand from California.
• C)Beach sand from the Caribbean and many other tropical climates is made primarily of the calcium carbonate remains of coral and shelled creatures.Vinegar is an acid and the calcium carbonate is a base.
• D)Caribbean beach sand contains deposits from the mouth of the Mississippi river which carries with it a great deal of contamination from urban waste.These warm water contaminates react with the acid in vinegar.

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Definitions:

Continental Slope

The steep slope extending from the outer edge of the continental shelf down to the continental rise or the ocean floor.

Salt Structures

Geologic formations created by the movement and deformation of salt within the earth's crust.

Continental Rifting

Continental rifting is a geological process in which a continent stretches and splits apart, leading to the formation of new ocean basins and rift valleys.

Continental Crust

The layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves.