Ozone Layer Depletion
Destroying the Ozone Shield
Ozone, a form of oxygen consisting of three atoms of oxygen instead of two, is considered an air pollutant when found at ground levels and is a major component of smog. It is formed by the reaction of various air pollutants in the presence of sunlight. Ozone is also used commercially as a bleaching agent and to purify municipal water supplies. Since ozone is toxic, the gas is harmful to health when generated near the earth's surface. Because of its high rate of breakdown, such ozone never reaches the upper atmosphere.
But the ozone that shields the earth from the sun's radiation is found in the stratosphere, a layer of the upper atmosphere found 9–30 mi (15–50 km) above ground. This ozone layer is maintained as follows: the action of ultraviolet light breaks O2 molecules into atoms of elemental oxygen (O). The elemental oxygen then attaches to other O2 molecules to form O3. When it absorbs ultraviolet radiation that would otherwise reach the earth, ozone is, in turn, broken down into O2 + O. The elemental oxygen generated then finds another O2 molecule to become O3 once again.
In 1974, chemists F.
This page contains 201 words.
Ozone Layer Depletion article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 3,248 words
(approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Ozone depletion Article
