Scientists have been arguing about the large ozone hole over the poles for years now. Some say that it has been getting bigger and bigger. Many people think that there is nothing to worry about because it is supposedly over desolate land and nothing is there to absorb the rays that are coming through the hole except ice and snow. Unfortunately this is not true.

Ozone Hole South Pole
Photo Source: NASA - Photo Enchased

Punta Arenas, Chile is under the ozone hole. This is a city of over 120,000 people. It is located at 53 degrees latitude and is only a short boat ride from Antarctica. Every day the people of this city have to deal with cosmic rays, the rays that shine through the hole. Normally the atmosphere of the Earth breaks up these rays and they never make to to the ground. The cosmic rays produce ultraviolet radiation. No one knows for sure how this will effect the population of Punta Arenas some years down the road. It is a shame that a whole city full of people are now part of nature's very dangerous experiment. Many people believe that the hole is so far away from them that they have nothing to worry about. There are some opinions among scientists that new holes could open up in other areas. If this happens the problem could become much more wide spread and appear in much more populated areas. Just imagine an ozone hole opening over China, India, the USA, Brazil or Russia, or even Europe for that matter.

In September and October, between the hours of 11 am to 3 pm, the ozone hole is at its thinnest and the local authorities warn the residents of Punta Arenas to stay inside. The ultraviolet radiation is capable of producing a severe sun burn. The residents of this city are not happy campers. They often complain that the world didn't care what happened to them and caused this problem. The truth of the matter is that they were, as it is said, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also there is an unfortunate situation that exists in the city that compounds the problem. The city is too poor to afford efficient detection instruments to measure the radiation.

The largest-ever ozone hole, roughly three times the size of the U.S., was detected on September 6 by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer.
Photo Source: NASA

The atmosphere has protected the earth from this potentially deadly radiation for almost a billion years. It was thought that we humans were responsible for depletion of ozone in the atmosphere over the last 60 years or so because of the use of spray cans and such. The cans usually contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that deplete ozone. There is really very little ozone in the atmosphere to start with, something on the order of 10 molecules of ozone for every million molecules. These are in a layer of the atmosphere that is from 6 miles to 25 miles above the Earth. Some scientists have begun to think that the ozone hole is caused by nature and we could not have prevented it.

In 2003 the Ozone hole over the Antarctic was the second largest hole ever observed. In September 2003 the hole had reached the incredible size of 10.9 million square miles. In 2002 the hole measured 8.1 million square miles but the largest hole ever recorded was in 2000 and measured 11.5 million square miles. A NASA's scientist, Paul Newman said, "While chlorine and bromine chemicals cause the ozone hole, extremely cold temperatures, especially near the edge of Antarctica, are also key factors in ozone loss."

The Montreal Protocol and its amendments banned chlorine-containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and bromine-containing halons in 1995 and scientists hope that the decline of these chemicals in the atmosphere will cause the hole to eventually shrink and disappear in about 60 years.