Outline of earth science

Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. Earth is arguably a special case in planetary science, being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to the Earth science. The major historic disciplines use physics, geology, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to earth science:

Essence of earth science

Main article: Earth science

Earth science is also known as:

• the Earth Sciences
• Geoscience
• the Geosciences
• a planetary science

Earth's spheres

• Earth (planet)
• Lithosphere or Geosphere
  • Sediment
  • Rock (geology)
  • Crust (geology)
    • Oceanic Crust
    • Continental Crust
  • Lithosphere
  • Asthenosphere
  • Earth's mantle
  • Earth's core
    • Inner core
    • Outer core
• Pedosphere
  • Soil
• Hydrosphere
  • Water
• Cryosphere
  • Glacier
  • Ice
  • Ice core
• Atmosphere
  • Air
  • Climate
  • Earth's atmosphere
    • Exosphere
    • Ionosphere
    • Thermosphere
    • Mesosphere
    • Stratosphere
    • Troposphere
  • Gas
  • Weather
• Biosphere
  • Life
    • Flora
    • Fauna
• Magnetosphere

Branches of earth science

Geology

• Geology
• Economic geology
• Engineering geology
• Environmental geology
• Gemology
• Geochemistry
• Geochronology
• Geomagnetics
• Geomicrobiology
• Geomorphology
• Geophysics
• Historical geology
• Hydrogeology
• Mantle plumes
• Micropaleontology
• Mineralogy
• Mineral Physics
• Mining
• Paleontology
• Palynology
• Petroleum geology
• Petrology
• Physical geodesy
• Planetary geology
• Plate tectonics
• Quaternary geology
• Sedimentology
• Seismology
• Stratigraphy
• Structural geology
• Tectonics
• Volcanology

Geography

• Geography
• Human geography
• Paleogeography
• Physical Geography

Soil science

• Soil science
• Edaphology
• Pedology

Atmospheric science

• Atmospheric sciences
• Meteorology
• Climatology
• Paleoclimatology

Oceanography

• Oceanography
• Physical oceanography
• Chemical oceanography
• Hydrogeology
• Hydrology
• Limnology
• Marine Biology
• Marine Geology
• Marine Geophysics
• Paleoceanography

Glaciology

• Glaciology

Geoinformatics

• Geographic information systems
• Spatial decision support systems
• Global positioning systems (GPS) or Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
• Remote sensing and Photogrammetry
• Geodesy
• Geostatistics

History of earth science

Main article: History of earth science; see also History of geology

Earth science topics

Main article: List of earth science topics

See also

Earth sciences portal

Wikipedia:Books has a book on: Earth science

• List of geoscience organizations

External links

Find more about Earth science on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity