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ScienceMay 1985

Discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole

Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey reported that the ozone over Antarctica was falling sharply every spring — leading to the Montreal Protocol (1987) to cut CFCs.

Ozone over Antarctica on 3 October 1985 — the blue and purple area is the ozone hole (NASA)
Ozone over Antarctica on 3 October 1985 — the blue and purple area is the ozone hole (NASA)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio · Public domain · Source

Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin of the British Antarctic Survey, examining records kept at Halley station since the 1950s, found that from the late 1970s the ozone overhead fell sharply every Antarctic spring (September–October). Published in Nature in May 1985, the discovery showed the warning that CFCs used in refrigerators and spray cans were destroying the ozone layer to be real.

The world moved fast: in 1987 the Montreal Protocol committed nations to phase out CFCs. The ozone hole still forms every year, but the layer is expected to recover almost fully by the middle of the century — a rare example of nations solving a global environmental problem together.

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States at the time
Great Britain

Before and after

Earlier
1966 1966 FIFA World Cup England
Later
1986 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico

Themes that include this event

  • Antarctic Exploration1773 – 2014

    From Cook crossing the Antarctic Circle in 1773 to the first sightings of the continent, Ross’s wall of ice, the race to the pole between Amundsen and Scott, Shackleton’s Endurance, the Antarctic Treaty and the ozone hole — two centuries of reaching for the frozen continent