Kilobars

Kilobar (symbol kbar) is a unit of pressure equal to 1000 bars. Since one bar is defined as exactly 100,000 pascals, one kilobar equals 100,000,000 pascals (10^8 Pa), i.e., 100 megapascals (MPa) or about 0.1 gigapascal (GPa). The kilobar is a non-SI unit still commonly used in geoscience and high-pressure physics because it provides a convenient scale for pressures experienced in Earth's interior and in laboratory experiments.

In practical terms, 1 kbar is approximately 14,503.8 pounds per square inch (psi). It is also equivalent to 0.1 GPa. Because it is not an SI unit, many scientific contexts express pressures in pascals or megapascals, but kilobars remain standard in metamorphic petrology and high-pressure experimentation.

Kilobars are used to describe the pressures associated with metamorphism of rocks, subduction zone processes, and other geophysical conditions, where pressures typically fall in the kilobar range. In laboratory settings, kilobars are generated and measured in high-pressure devices such as diamond anvil cells, piston-cylinder presses, or multi-anvil assemblies. Modern high-pressure research can reach from tens of kilobars into the hundreds of kilobars range, and some techniques extend toward higher pressures.

Overall, kilobar provides a convenient, widely recognized unit for discussing non-SI pressures in Earth sciences and related experimental physics, bridging everyday measurements in bars and larger pressure scales in gigapascals.