Initiation: Splitting or homolysis of a chlorine molecule to form two chlorine atoms, initiated by ultraviolet radiation or sunlight.

The light is absorbed by chlorine molecule, the low energy of this transition being indicted by the yellowish color of the gas.

Your tongue can tell the difference between a chloride ion and a chlorine molecule.

The chlorine atom, written often as Cl, behaves very differently from the chlorine molecule (Cl).

Finally, the least one attacks another chlorine molecule to produce a sulfonyl chloride and a new chlorine atom which continues the reaction chain.

A single chlorine molecule remains in the stratosphere, breaking down tens of thousands of ozone molecules, for as long as a century.

Chloride ions become chlorine molecules, and for four billion of those years, the lithosphere absorbed them.

It is estimated that every chlorine molecule has the ability to destroy 100,000 ozone molecules.

The key threat to the ozone, Dr. de Zafra said, is a molecule in which two oxygen atoms are attached to opposite sides of a chlorine molecule.

Researchers will not know until summer to what extent winds, temperatures and sunlight permit the chlorine molecules to open up a "hole" over the North.