EARTH SCIENC E

WHAT IS EARTH SCIENCE

Earth science
- (also known

as geoscience, the geosciences or t he Earth

- is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth.

- The formal discipline of Earth

sciences may include the study of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and biosphere, as well as the solid earth.

Typically Earth scientists will use

tools from physics,chemistry, biology, c hronology and mathematics to build a quantitative understanding of how the Earth system works, and how it evolved to its current state.

Fields of study
The following fields of science are generally categorized within the geosciences:

Geology
-describes the rocky parts of the Earth's crust (or lithosphere) and its historic development.

Major subdisciplines of Geology:

mineralogy and petrology geochemistry geomorphology paleontology stratigraphy structural geology engineering geology sedimentology

Physical geography
- covers aspects of geomorphology, soil study, hydrology, meteor ology, climatology and biogeography.

Geophysics and geod esy

- geodesy investigate the shape of the Earth, its reaction to forces and its magnetic and gravity fields.

Geophysicists explore the Earth's core and mantle as well as the tectonic and seismi c activity of the lithosphere.

Soil science
- covers the outermost layer of the Earth's crust that is subject to soil formation processes (or pedosphere).

Major subdisciplines: include edaphology and pedology.

Oceanography and hydrolo gy

- includes limnology) describe the marine and freshwater domains of the watery parts of the

Major subdisciplines: include hydrogeolog y and physical, chemi cal, and biological ocean ography.

gy
- covers the icy parts of the Earth (or cryosphere).

Atmospheric sciences
- cover the gaseous parts of the Earth (or atmosphere) between the surface and the exosphere (about 1000 km).

Major subdisciplines: are meteorology,cli matology, atmosphe ric chemistry and atmo

EARTH INTERIOR

Earth's interior
Plate tectonics mountain

ranges volcanoe earthquake s

s

are geological phenomena that

can be explained in terms of energy transformations in the Earth's crust.

 Beneath the

resulting process is known as plate tectonics .

Earth's crust lies the mantle which is heated by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The mantle is not quite solid and consists of magma which is in a state of semiperpetual convection. This convection process causes the lithospheric

Plate tectonics
might be

Seafloor spreading
new crust is created by

thought of as the process by which the earth is resurfaced. Through a process called seafloor spreading).

the flow of magma from underneath the lithosphere to the surface, through fissures, where it cools and solidifies. Through a process called subduction, oceanic crust is pushed underground beneath the rest of the lithospherewhere it comes into contact with magma and melts

Areas of the crust where new crust is created are called divergent boundaries, those where it is brought back into the earth are convergent boundaries and those where plates slide past each other, but no new lithospheric material is created or destroyed, are referred to as transform

VOLCANOE EARTHQUAKES S
Volcanoes result

result from the

movement of the lithospheric plates, and they often occur near convergent boundaries where parts of the crust are forced into the earth as part of

primarily from the melting of sub ducted crust material. Crust material that is forced into the asthenosphere melts , and some portion of the melted material becomes light enough to rise to the surfacegiving birth to volcanoes.

ELECTRO MAGNETIC FIELD

Earth's electromagnetic field ELECTROMAGN

ET
is a magnet
Earth has a solid

that is created by a current that flows around a

iron inner core surrounded by semi-liquid materials of the outer core that move in continuous currents around the inner core; therefore, the Earth is an electromagnet. This is referred to as the dynamo theory of

ATMOSPHER E

ATMOSPHERE
The magnetosphe re shields the surface of Earth from the charged particles of the solar wind. It is compressed on the day (Sun) side due to the force of the arriving particles, and extended on the night side.

 The troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, th

ermosphere, and exosphere are the five layers which make up Earth's atmosphere. In all, the atmosphere is made up of about 78.0% nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, and 0.92% argon. 75% of the gases in the atmosphere are located within the troposphere, the bottom-most layer. The remaining one percent of the atmosphere (all but the nitrogen, oxygen, and argon) contains small amounts of other gases including CO2 and water vapors. Water vapors and CO2 allow the Earth's atmosphere to catch and hold the Sun's energy through a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect.[22] This allows Earth's surface to be warm enough to have liquid water and support life.

 The magnetic field created by the internal

motions of the core produces the magnetosphere which protects the Earth's atmosphere from the solar wind.As the earth is 4.5 billion years old, it would have lost its atmosphere by now if there were no protective magnetosphere. In addition to storing heat, the atmosphere also protects living organisms by shielding the Earth's surface from cosmic rays. Note that the level of protection is high enough to prevent cosmic rays from destroying all life on Earth, yet low enough to aid the mutations that have an important role in pushing forward diversity in the biosphere.

METHODOLOG Y

Like all other scientists, Earth

scientists apply the scientific method. They formulate hypotheses after observing events and gathering data about natural phenomena, and then they test hypotheses from such data.

A contemporary idea within earth For example: science is uniformitarianism.

- a mountain need Uniformitarianism not be thought of - says that "ancient as having been geologic features are created in a interpreted by moment, but understanding active processes that are readily instead it may be observed". Simply stated, seen as the result this means that of continuous geological processes subduction, occurring today causing magma to happened in the past -rise and form the present is the key to

EARTH SPHERE

Earth science generally recognizes four spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere,
the atmosphere, and the biosphere.

These corresponds to: rocks water

air life

Some practitioners

include, as part of the spheres of the Earth, the cryosphere (correspon ding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (correspon ding to soil) as an active

Partial list of the major earth science topics

ATMOSPHERE Atmospheric chemistry Climatology Meteorology

Hydrometeorology

Paleoclimatology

BIOSPHERE Biogeography Paleontology

Palynology Micropaleontology

Geomicrobiology
Geoarchaeology

HYDROSPHERE
Hydrology Geohydrology Limnology (freshwater science)

Oceanography (marine science) Chemical oceanography Physical oceanography Biological oceanography (marine biology) Geological oceanography (marine geology)

LITHOSPHERE OR GEOSPHERE
Geology Economic geology Engineering geology Environmental geology Planetary geology Sedimentology Historical geology
Quaternary geology

Stratigraphy Structural geology

Geography Physical geography Geochemistry Geomorphology

 Geophysics Geochronology Geodynamics (see also Tectonics) Geomagnetism Gravimetry (also part of Geodesy) Seismology Glaciology Hydrogeology

Mineralogy Crystallography Gemology Petrology

Speleology Volcanology

Pedosphere Soil science

Edaphology Pedology