Portal:Earth sciences/Intro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Earth Sciences (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or Earth Science) are the category of physical sciences that study the planet Earth. It is a special type of planetary science; it studies the planet we live on: the structure and composition of the Earth, its origins, physical features, changing aspects, and all of its natural phenomena. The major disciplines of The Earth Sciences use physics, mathematics and, chemistry to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system. Like in many sciences, The Earth can be studied both experimentally and theoretically. Also, there are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth Science. Applications of the Earth Sciences include the exploration and exploitation of mineral and hydrocarbon resources, cartography, weather forecasting patterns, and warning of volcanic eruptions. The Earth Sciences are related to the environmental sciences as well as the other subfields of planetary astronomy.
Notable fields of the Earth Sciences are:
- Geology, the study of the Earth's lithosphere, mantle and core.
- Soil science, the study of the Earth's pedosphere.
- Oceanography, limnology and hydrology: studies of the Earth's hydrosphere.
- Atmospheric sciences.
- Glaciology, the study of the Earth's cryosphere.
Some notable interdisciplinary fields relating to geoscience are meteorology, geochemistry, geophysics, physical geography, mineralogy, climatology, and paleoclimatology.
