Ozone Layer

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade October 2001

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The Ozone Layer Ozone is a gas that has no color. The ozone is a form of oxygen. It has a smell like chlorine. Its thickness is one half of oxygen. The Ozone is 19km to 48km above the earth's surface. The temperatures in the ozone are anywhere between 0 and "“20 Decrees Celsius. It protects us from very harmful ultraviolet radiation. These ultraviolet rays can cause cancer and it can even cause death. All living things on earth would suffer from radiation burns if it were here on earth. You would not suffer from these radiation burns if you were in protective suits or in the ocean. The only other way of surviving these burns is that you go underground. The ozone layer protects us from any such radiation. If the ozone layer were to be at ground level it would damage the lungs and it would be very hard to breathe.

There are very dangerous chlorine-chemicals in the ozone layer that could kill us, they are called chlorofluorocarbons that are a threat to the ozone layer. They rise and are broken down by the sunlight, then the chlorine reacts and destroy the ozone molecules. There are other harmful chemicals that are threats to us, they also attack the ozone, like halocarbons. If the ozone layer were destroyed it would be very bad, causing skin cancer, destroying certain crops, plankton. Destroying these main elements of nature would result in the whole food web being wiped out after a period of time. This will increase carbon dioxide and push out the oxygen so soon or later we won't be able to breathe.

In the 1970's scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer. There was a thin layer in the ozone, the radiation rays had hit Antarctica and this had occurred...