Ozone Layer Depletion
Joseph Farman, of the British Meteorological Survey, and colleagues reported in the scientific journal Nature that concentrations of stratospheric ozone above Antarctica had plunged more than 40 percent from 1960s baseline levels during October, the first month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, between 1977 and 1984. It meant that for several
months of the year a hole forms in the ozone layer, which protects animals and plants from ultraviolet solar radiation. Suddenly it seemed that the chemical processes known to deplete ozone high in the earth’s atmosphere were working faster and more efficiently than predicted.