When was the famous Antarctic ozone hole discovered?
The “hole” (it is not actually a hole through the layer, but an area of significantly low ozone concentration) in the ozone layer over the Antarctic was discovered by Dr. Joe Farman of the British Antarctic Survey. It became dramatic news when details were published in 1985. The Survey had been measuring the ozone layer over the South Pole for 18 years, and found dramatic thinning every year from September to November. They determined the hole first began forming in the mid-1970s. When the ground-based measurements by the Survey were corroborated by NASA satellite data, the Antarctic ozone hole became an international environmental phenomenon of unprecedented proportion. This was the first real evidence that the ozone layer was changing. At the same time, research was published on the adverse environmental and human health effects of a thinning ozone layer: skin cancer, depressed immune systems and decreased primary agricultural activity.
