MBGS was recently contacted by ABC’s Catalyst research team to provide an estimate of the weight of Uluru for an upcoming episode.

Using topography data, a model of the surface of Uluru was generated and a volume was estimated to the ground surface level.  We applied a default density of 2.35 g/cc based on the lithology (arkose – a coarse grained, feldspar rich sandstone) to come up with a tonnage.

And the number we estimated was big! 1.425 billion tonnes.  We were surprised by how heavy Uluru is, but with dimensions of 2.5 km by 1.35 km…it’s a big rock.

Out of interest we looked up the weight of some ‘big stuff’ on the internet to compare with Uluru:

• the Great Pyramid of Giza weighs 5,750,000 tonnes.  So about 250 Great Pyramids would approximate the weight of Uluru!
• a Boeing 747 weighs about 400 tonnes – you would need 3.5 million!!!