News Earth

Ancient volcanoes destroyed ozone

Eruptions gave off gas that eroded the protective atmospheric layer

By Alexandra Witze

- More than 2 years ago

SELFOSS, Iceland — Geoscientists have exposed another assault on Earth’s protective ozone layer — not by manufactured chemicals, but by gas ejected in the blasts of huge volcanic eruptions.

Bromine from big volcanic eruptions, like the one that created the Apoyo Caldera in Nicaragua 24,500 years ago, would have diminished the planet’s protective ozone for years at a stretch.