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The Geology link for the Canadian Oil and Gas Industry - providing Geological Expertise and Information Services.

Size Matters

The following scale was provided by Hugh Abercrombie of Birch Mountain Resources Ltd, from his presentation to the Hydrogeology Division of the CSPG "Angstroms to Megametres - Hydrothermal Processes across 16 Orders of Magnitude in Northern Alberta", 13th December 2001. It provides an excellent reference for geo-scientists (and other Canadians) to visualise scale (measured in metres).

Size in Metres

Example

1,000,000 m

Western Canada Sedimentary Basin

(1,000 Kilometres)

100,000 m

Calgary to Canmore

10,000 m

A Good Run

1,000 m

A good swim

(1 Kilometre)

100 m

Football Field

10 m

High diving board

1 m

Waist deep powder

(1 metre = 3.281 feet)

0.1 m

Human hand

0.01 m

Grape (a small one!)

(1 centimetre)

0.001 m

Millimetre

0.0001 m

Fine sand

0.00001 m

Fine silt

0.000001 m

Micro-particle

0.0000001 m

Very fine clay

0.00000001 m

Nano-particle

0.000000001 m

Large molecule

0.0000000001 m

Atom

(1 angstrom)