Download What is geoscience? - Welcome to The College of Social

What is
geoscience?
Geoscience
• a group of related disciplines focused
on the Earth and its systems, history,
and resources
• it’s more than just rocks: geoscience
also involves climate, plants, asteroids,
fossils, archaeology, pollen, glaciers,
lakes, etc.
Geoscience
• looks at everything involving the Earth
and other planets, little picture to big
picture
• also investigates ways that geology can
help or harm people
Little picture
(grains of sand to molecules & atoms)
• grains of sand (sedimentology)
• crystals (mineralogy and
crystallography)
• molecules in groundwater
• individual atoms (isotope geochemistry)
Big picture (Earth as a whole)
• plate tectonics
• composition and structure of the crust,
mantle, and core
• impact cratering
• formation and evolution of the Earth
Big picture (Earth as a whole)
• some fields of geoscience into the big
picture:
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geophysics
seismology
structural geology
planetary science
Geologic hazards
• geologic events that can harm people or
property, such as
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volcanoes
earthquakes
landslides and avalanches
sinkholes
floods
Geologic hazards
• areas of geoscience that study these hazards
include:
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volcanology
seismology
geophysics
engineering geology
geomorphology
hydrology
Natural resources
• geologic materials used by people, such
as:
• energy (petroleum, coal, geothermal,
hydroelectric)
• materials (metals, gemstones, sand and
gravel)
• fresh water
• fertile soil
Natural resources
• areas of geoscience concerned with natural
resources include:
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exploration geophysics
mineral mining
hydrology
soil science
Earth history
• some geoscientists study changes in
the Earth’s past, such as:
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past climate
evolution of the atmosphere
ice ages
past plant and animal life
mass extinctions
human evolution
Earth history
• geoscience fields involved in this research:
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paleoclimatology
dendrochronology
paleontology
paleoanthropology
geoarchaeology
chronometry
Summary
• Geoscience is a very broad field
involving the study of the Earth and
other planets, from atoms and
molecules to planetwide events like
earthquakes
• There are many diverse careers
involved in geoscience research
all photographs © 1994-2005 kevin jones