The teragram (Tg) is an SI unit of mass that equals 10¹² grams, which is equivalent to one megatonne (one million metric tonnes). It is primarily used in geoscience, climatology, and ecology to measure massive global quantities, such as annual carbon emissions, atmospheric dust transport, or the total biomass of a forest region. Using teragrams keeps the numbers manageable in large-scale environmental models.
Heard on the job
The volcanic eruption injected an estimated two teragrams of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.