Are you suggesting that most americans have a good grasp of how much water a cubic mile is?
Surely the standard unit for this sort of thing is multiples of well known large lakes or seas?
Surely the standard unit for this sort of thing is multiples of well known large lakes or seas?
In this case, 1.48 * 10^20 CCC
But quoting a value of 4.4 x 10^19 liters is meaningless for most people.
"Of course, that's 22,000,000,000,000,000,000 two-liter soda bottles!"
So cubic miles seems like a reasonable unit for this pop-science article, despite the fact that you likely wouldn't use it in a published journal article.
Yeah. Long. I doubt most people can eyeball something in the distance and say with accuracy "yeah that is about a mile away" because a mile is really long and people are bad at estimating things. Now do it for 10 miles.
A relatable example like someone has mentioned "its about 10 dead seas worth" would have been a better play.