O-gone!

So what exactly is eroding the ozone layer? Free radical catalysts like nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, hydroxyl, atomic chlorine and atomic bromine are the naturally occurring elements/compounds that cause the depletion of ozone. But the cause of the drastic degradation of ozone are man-made organohalogens- chlorofluorocarbons and bromofluorocarbons. Being highly stable, these compounds rise to the stratosphere where their reactions with UV rays liberate chlorine and bromine radicals. Each free radical initiates and catalyzes a chain reaction capable of breaking down over hundred thousand ozone molecules.

Here's a tribute to the ozone layer on ozone day.

This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.