Ozone layer?

Question

How ozone layer created? What chemicals are destroying the ozone layer? What can be done to prevent this?
Pleeaaaaaaaaase help!

Answer 1

Be careful, some answers sound well researched and intelligent - but are just plain wrong. UV radiation has nothing to do with the melting of the polar ice caps.

Ozone is O3 - three oxygen atoms covalently bonded to each other. It is fairly unstable and reactive compared to diatomic molecular oxygen (the oxygen that we need to survive). In the lower atmosphere ozone is a pollutant and is not good for animal life -- but in the upper atmosphere ozone is very important as it blocks incoming UV-B radiation that would be harmful to living things.

Ozone in the stratosphere is created by the reaction of ultraviolet rays with oxygen -- O2 + (radiation < 240 nm) → 2 O..... O + O2 → O3. Ozone in the troposphere (the low levels of the atmosphere) is mostly created by the reaction of sunlight on air containing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that react to form ozone... There is a complex chain of chemical reactions that occur in order to create tropospheric ozone -- The net effect of these reactions is: CO + 2O2 → CO2 + O3. For more information on tropospheric ozone go to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ozone#Formation

As for how stratospheric ozone (good ozone) is destroyed.... Put simply ozone is destroyed naturally and by human activity -- it is the destruction from human activity that is worrying.

"Ozone can be destroyed by a number of free radical catalysts, the most important of which are the hydroxyl radical (OH·), the nitric oxide radical (NO·) and atomic chlorine (Cl·) and bromine (Br·). All of these have both natural and anthropogenic (manmade) sources; at the present time, most of the OH· and NO· in the stratosphere is of natural origin, but human activity has dramatically increased the chlorine and bromine." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion

Answer 2

Region in the upper atmosphere, about 6–30 mi (10–50 km) high, with significant concentrations of ozone, formed by the effect of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation on oxygen and also present in trace quantities elsewhere in earth's atmosphere. Ozone strongly absorbs solar UV radiation, causing atmospheric temperature to climb to about 30°F (0°C) at the top of the layer, and preventing much of this radiation from reaching earth's surface, where it would injure many living things. Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, and some other air pollutants that diffuse into the ozone layer destroy ozone. In the mid-1980s, scientists discovered that a "hole" — an area where the ozone is up to 50% thinner than normal — develops periodically in the ozone layer above Antarctica. This severe regional depletion, explained as a natural seasonal depletion, appears to have been exacerbated by the effects of CFCs, and may have led to an increase in skin cancer caused by UV exposure. Restrictions on the manufacture and use of CFCs and other ozone-destroying pollutants were imposed in 1978.

Answer 3

A group of chimicals called CFC's are a big problem. Millions of tons were released into the atmosphere up to 1978 when no longer could R-11 nor R12 be used as a prpelent in spray cans. 1994 saw a big change as many nations ban dumping refrigerants into the atmosphere. Ozone is "created" by oxygen O2 being broken up by the suns UV rays; the O is united with O2 by the same UV's. It is these UV's that are melting the ice at the poles.