earth science

any of the sciences that deal with the earth or its parts

histOfScience Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth (planet)Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holismholistic approaches to Earth science. The major historic disciplines use physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or ''Earth's spheresspheres'' of the Earth system:

Earth's spheres -

Geology covers the Rock (geology)rocky parts of the Earth (or lithosphere) including the planet's Earth's corecore, Earth's mantlemantle, and Crust (geology)crust. Major subdisciplines are geophysics, geochemistry, paleontology, petrology, stratigraphy and sedimentology.

Oceanography, limnology, and hydrology describe the marine and freshwater domains of the waterwatery parts of the Earth (or hydrosphere). Major subdisciplines include hydrogeology and Physical oceanographyphysical, Chemical oceanographychemical, and biologybiological oceanography.

Atmospheric sciences cover the gasgaseous parts of the Earth (or Earth's atmosphereatmosphere).

Glaciology covers the iceicy parts of the Earth (or cryosphere)However, given the numerous interactions between the Earth's spheresspheres many modern fields take an interdisciplinary approach and thus do not sit comfortably in this scheme:

Interdisciplinary fields -

Biogeochemistry follows the cycling of elements through the Earth's spheresspheres mediated by biological and geological processes, and especially their distribution and fluxes between ''reservoirs''.

Mineralogy and Mineral Physics consider the rock-forming minerals on the atomic length-scale, both as part of geosystems and increasingly with an eye towards technological applications (for instance, as catalysts or exploiting their potential ferroelectric properties); in this, there is extensive and increasing overlap with solid-state physics, crystal chemistry and Materials Science.

Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology use the properties of sediments, ice cores, or biological material to infer past states of the ocean, atmosphere or climate.Furthermore, other modern disciplines known collectively as Earth system science approach the entire Earth as a Systems thinkingsystem in its own right, which evolves as a result of ''positive feedbackpositive'' and ''negative feedback'' between constituent systems:

Meteorology describes, explains and predicts the weather based on the interaction of principally the ocean and atmosphere.

Climatology describes and explains the climate in terms of the interaction of the litho-, hydro-, atmo-, cryo-, and bio- spheres.

Gaia theory (science)Gaia theories explain the behaviour of the Earth system in terms of the influence of the biosphere. Like all other scientists, earth scientists apply the scientific method: formulate hypotheses after observation of and gathering data about natural phenomena and then test those hypotheses. In earth science, data usually plays a critical role in testing and formulating hypotheses. The Systems thinkingsystems approach, enabled by the combined use of computer models as hypotheses tested by global Earth observation satellitesatellite and ship-board data, is increasingly giving scientists the ability to explain the past and possible future behaviour of the Earth system.

Partial list of the major Earth Science topics -

Geology -

Cataclysmic Geology

Economic geology

Engineering geology

Environmental geology

Gemology

Geochemistry

Geochronology

Geomagnetics

Geomicrobiology

Geomorphology

Geophysics

Geostatistics

Historical geology

Hydrogeology

Mantle plumes

Micropaleontology

Mining

Paleontology

Palynology

pedology (soil study)Pedology

Petroleum geology

Petrology

Physical geodesy

Planetary geology

Plate tectonics

Quaternary geology

Sedimentology

Seismology

Stratigraphy

Structural geology

Tectonics

Volcanology

Oceanography -

Physical oceanography

Chemical oceanography

Biological oceanography

Paleoceanography

Marine Geology

Marine Geophysics

Geography -

Human geography

Geography

Paleogeography

Physical Geography

Limnology -

Limnology

Glaciology -

Glaciology

Atmospheric Science -

Atmospheric sciences

Systems or multidisciplinary -

Climatology

Earth system science

Mineralogy

Gaia theory (science)Gaia theories

Meteorology

Paleoclimatology

See also -

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Earth Science Week
Earth science education event in October of each year. Web site features educational activities, geology questions and answers, and links to other geologic education resources.
http://www.earthsciweek.org/

CIESIN - Center for International Earth Science Information Network
Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University -- Information resources on many topics related to the earth and its environment.
http://www.ciesin.org/

Destination: Earth
NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is an initiative to advance Earth science.
http://www.earth.nasa.gov/

For Kids Only - Earth Science Enterprise
Learn about NASA earth science projects related to air, thunderstorms, the earth's crust, tropical rainfall and water. Sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/