Convert Petaliter (PL) to Acre-Foot (ac*ft) instantly.
About these units
Petaliter (PL)
A petaliter represents 10¹⁵ liters, a massive unit used to quantify the total water content of oceans, polar ice sheets, or planetary atmospheres. Oceanographers may describe the Pacific Ocean's volume or the total ice volume of Antarctica in petaliters; these scales cannot be expressed meaningfully in smaller units without imposing huge, impractical numbers. The PL is also sometimes used in astronomy to approximate ocean-like features on other worlds, such as subsurface oceans on Europa or Enceladus. It represents one of the largest practical volumetric units before entering pure theoretical measurement.
Acre-Foot (ac*ft)
An acre-foot represents the volume of water needed to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot—approximately 1,233.48 cubic meters or 325,851 gallons. This unit is foundational in water resource management throughout the western United States, where large-scale irrigation, reservoir planning, and drought analysis depend on acre-foot measurements. For example, major reservoirs like Lake Mead and Lake Powell hold billions of acre-feet. In agriculture, irrigation districts track water rights and allocations using acre-feet, making it a key component of water law. Its scale is ideal for representing the enormous water needs associated with farming, urban expansion, and environmental preservation.