The kinetics and mechanism of the photoinitiated and iodide ion-catalyzed aqueous autoxidation of sulfur(IV) has been studied in a diode-array spectrophotometer using the same light beam for excitation and detection. Light absorption of both the iodide ion and sulfur(IV) contribute to the initiation of a highly efficient radical chain reaction, the overall rate of which depends on the reactant and catalyst concentrations, the pH, and the light intensity in a complex manner. To interpret all the experimental findings, an elaborate scheme is proposed, in which the chain carriers are SO3-center dot, SO4-center dot, SO5-center dot, I-center dot, and I-2(-center dot). There are three termination steps, each of them is second-order with respect to the chain carriers. Model calculations and nonlinear fitting have been used to show that the proposed scheme gives an excellent quantitative interpretation of the experimental results.