The initiation time of pitting as a function of NaCl concentration, shown in Fig. , demonstrates that a decrease in NaCl concentration leads to an increase in initiation time. At 50-100 mM NaCl, the initiation time is 0.4 s, which then gradually increases to 0.5 s (average of two measurements), 0.9 s (average of two measurements), and 1.2 s at 30, 10, and 5 mM NaCl, respectively. This trend aligns well with literature and can be attributed to the more aggressive attack on the passive layer by Cl -anions at higher Cl -concentrations. When examining the initial area of detected pits in Fig. , the quantity of pits peaks at approximately 0.25-1 µm 2 , corresponding to just a few pixels in the image. Beyond this range, the number of detected pits decreases sharply as the surface area increases, with the largest pit being 8 µm 2 . This observation is somewhat surprising, as one might expect a Gaussian-like distribution for the stochastic process of pit formation. The fact that the majority of detected pits correspond to areas approaching just a few pixels suggests that the onset of pit formation occurs at a sub-micrometer scale. This finding is consistent with results reported in STM and AFM studies.