Ozone Depletion

One of the biggest ecological problems of today is the ozone depletion. Many chemical compounds, in the past considered not being dangerous, have been released into the air and have come to the lower atmospheric layers – their collecting causes ozone to deplete. Let us firstly see what the ozone is, what is its function and where can we find it. The ozone molecule contains three oxygen atoms and is very similar to the “normal” oxygen we breathe, which has two such atoms. It is mostly concentrated in the lower atmospheric regions (in the stratosphere) - 15 up to 30 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Though being much less common then normal oxygen (in 10 million air molecules about 2 million are normal oxygen, but only 3 are ozone), ozone plays a key role in the atmosphere.