This one over earth's tropical region is detectable all year and is seven times larger than the better-known hole over Antarctica. (CN) — As if we

There’s a new hole in the ozone layer, and it’s even bigger than the other ones

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2022-07-05 18:30:06

This one over earth's tropical region is detectable all year and is seven times larger than the better-known hole over Antarctica.

(CN) — As if we needed any more bad news this week: A new hole in the ozone layer has been discovered by Canadian chemical physicist Qing-Bin Lu. Unlike the other two, over the North and South poles, this one is over the tropical regions and can be seen year-round. It is, according to Lu, seven times larger than the better-known hole over Antarctica, though they are similar in depth.

And like that other hole, roughly 80% of the normal ozone value is depleted at the center of the hole (the term “hole” refers to a thinning of the ozone layer past a certain threshold, and not an actual hole).

Located in Earth’s stratosphere, the ozone layer is a shield of chemicals (containing a high concentration of ozone) that encircle the earth that absorbs most of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Without the ozone layer, that radiation would damage DNA in plants and animals and cause rampant skin cancer.

In the early 1980s, scientists began to realize that the ozone layer was thinning over the South Pole each spring. The hole in the ozone layer became the great environmental cause of the 1980s — mentioned in songs by Neil Young, Lou Reed, Elton John and Public Enemy — and led to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty which phased out the production of ozone-depleting chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (CFCs and HCFCs).

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