The title’s the question. I’ve thought about it for some time now, but I can’t find an answer.
In: Earth Science
Yes. If there were nothing that creates ozone then there wouldn’t be any ozone in the first place, would there? Ozone is formed naturally from oxygen and UV. Oxygen is usually found as O2. Ozone is O3. Oxygen doesn’t really want to be in the O3 state so it must be forced to stay in the O3 state by using lots of energy (UV).
The fundamental issue is energy. There’s more energy stored in 2 O₃ (ozone) molecules than in 3 O₂ (oxygen gas) molecules.
So a chemical that can turn ozone into oxygen can do it over and over again, liberating energy as it goes. Kind of like how you can burn down a house using just a single match: a single chlorine atom, for example, can destroy a hundred thousand ozone molecules.
On the other hand, turning oxygen into ozone requires *depositing* energy. Lightning and sunlight can do this, which is why we have an ozone layer to begin with, but any chemical that did it would have to be supplying the energy by destroying itself, and so could only do it once–*not* a hundred thousand times.
A combination of dust and sunlight will create ozone unfortunately this tends to happen close to the ground and ozone is actually toxic to humans https://youtu.be/CYVzcZbhxxs
When certain types of pollution, including exhaust from car engines reacts with sunlight, ozone is formed. The saying goes that ozone is good up high, but bad nearby. So the ozone that is produced this way, typically doesn’t become part of the ozone layer.
Check your local weather station or air quality management organization for information about which days have unhealthy amounts of ozone around. Right now, for much of North America, it is ozone season. The high temperatures and sunny days favor ozone formation, particularly in large cities with lots of vehicles.
Like, maybe some kind of ozone or something?
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