Fumed silica is a synthetic amorphous silicon dioxide produced by burning silicon tetrachloride in an oxygen-hydrogen flame. Surface areas range from 50-400 m(2)/g. Using particle sizing techniques, fumed silica shows micron sized particles leading to surface areas markedly lower than expected. Fumed silica appears as a fluffy solid with bulk densities down to 0.03 g/cm(3), being invariant over the wide range of surface areas. Attempts to relate the variation of the surface area directly to the performance of fumed silica in technical applications, such as its thickening efficiency in fluids, mainly fail and remain ambiguous.