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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 - List of geoscience organizationsNatural sciences-footer Category:Earth sciences*Category:Topic listsCategory:Academic disciplinesbg:Науки за Земятаbr:Skiantoù an Douarca:Ciències de la Terraco:Scienze di a Terracy:Gwyddoniaeth !Daearde:Geowissenschaftenet:Ma ateaduses:Ciencias? de la Tierraeo:Tersciencofr:Sciences de la !Terrefy:Ierdwittenskipgl:Cienc ias? Da !Terrako:지구과학hi:पृ ्वी? !शास्त्रia:Scient ias? del terrait:Scienze della Terrahe:מדעי כדור !הארץka:დედამი ის? !მეცნიერებე ბიlb:Geowëssenschaftenli: Aardweitesjappems:Sains? !buminl:Aardwetenschappenja:地 球科学pl:Nauki? o Ziemipt:Ciências da Terraro:Ştiinţele pământuluisc:Sièntzias de sa Terrascn:Scienzi dâ terrasimple:Earth sciencesl:Znanosti o Zemljifi:Geotieteettl:Agham !pandaigdigth:วิทยา าสตร์โลกvi:Kh oa? học Trái Đấtzh:地球科学 DEBUG REDIRECT (earth science)
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