Earth science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Earth science (also known as geoscience or the geosciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the Earth. It includes major disciplines such as geology, geophysics, meteorology, physical geography (as opposed to human geography), pedology, mineralogy, paleontology, sedimentology, hydrology, and geodesy. Marine science and environmental science are highly interdisciplinary branches of Earth Science. Arguably, earth science can be regarded as a branch of planetary science.
Earth science uses physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the Earth. This gives scientists the ability to predict the future behavior of the system known as "Planet Earth".
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. Each discipline of earth science has major paradigms that form the basis of that specific field of study.
Partial list of the major Earth Science topics
- Gemology
- Geochemistry
- Geochronology
- Geomagnetics
- Geomorphology
- Geophysics
- Geostatistics
- Geotechnics
- Glaciology
- Paleoclimatology
- Palaeogeography
- Palaeontology
- Pedology
- Petrology
- Planetary geology
- Physical geodesy
- Physical geology
- Petroleum geology
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