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Earth scienceFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 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. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth science. The major historic disciplines use physics, geography, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system:
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Earth's spheres
However, given the numerous interactions between the spheres many modern fields take an interdisciplinary approach and thus do not sit comfortably in this scheme. Even the above specialisms do not operate in isolation. For example to understand the circulation of the oceans needs an understanding of ocean - atmosphere interactions. [edit]
Interdisciplinary fieldsOther types of research are even more interdisciplinary and interactions between different disciplines are central to them, for example:
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Earth system scienceMany scientists are now starting to use an approach known as Earth system science which treats the entire Earth as a system in its own right, which evolves as a result of positive and negative feedback between constituent systems. The systems approach, enabled by the combined use of computer models as hypotheses tested by global satellite and ship-board data, is increasingly giving scientists the ability to explain the past and possible future behaviour of the Earth system. Complex computer models which seek to model several different parts of the Earth system and the interactions between them are known as Earth system models. Many are based on Global climate models and include sub models for the ocean, atmosphere, biosphere and other parts of the earth system. These interactions are of particular importance when trying to understand changes over decade to centuries and longer periods. Gaia theories explain the behaviour of the Earth system in terms of the influence of the biosphere. [edit]
MethodologyLike 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. [edit]
Partial list of the major Earth Science topics[edit]
The solid Earth
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Soil science[edit]
Oceanography
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Geography[edit]
Limnology[edit]
Glaciology[edit]
Atmospheric science[edit]
Systems or multidisciplinary[edit]
See also
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