• Question: will the ozone layer going to heal

    Asked by slipknots the name to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 18 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Luckily for us the hole in the Ozone layer is getting smaller and smaller, although it is still nearly the size of Australia. This is also season dependant, although as an average the ozone hole is getting smaller. This was partially done due to the banning of CFCs, which were a type of coolants used in fridges while they were also used in aerosol sprays.

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      The ozone layer formed without us, and it will heal again. Ozone is actually formed from the interaction of molecular oxygen, O2, with ultraviolet light high in the atmosphere. Any sufficiently intense light will produce ozone, and this is the distinctive smell you get around photocopiers.

      Ozone is however quite reactive, so it is always being consumed and regenerated. This is why it is such a delicate balance in the atmosphere and why it was so easily disrupted by our actions.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      It will indeed. Ozone is made of 3 oxygen atoms bonded together and is super reactive, but it does get made quite rapidly too! Now that we are not pumping chloroflurocarbons (CFCs – carbon molecules with chlorine and fluorine atoms bonded to it http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/haloalkanes/uses.html), we are not destroying it as fast (although there are still a lot of CFCs in the atmosphere) and so it is regenerating itself.

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