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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: • • • • geophysics seismology structural geology planetary science Geologic hazards • geologic events that can harm people or property, such as • • • • • volcanoes earthquakes landslides and avalanches sinkholes floods Geologic hazards • areas of geoscience that study these hazards include: • • • • • • 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: • • • • exploration geophysics mineral mining hydrology soil science Earth history • some geoscientists study changes in the Earth’s past, such as: • • • • • • 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: • • • • • • 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