The Field

Earth Systems Science is a scientific discipline that studies the Earth’s major systems and the important ways in which these systems are linked. The major systems are the geosphere—processes of the Earth’s surface and interior; biosphere—life on land and in the sea; atmosphere—weather and climate; hydrosphere—water in the oceans, air, and on the continents; and cryosphere—snow and ice-covered regions, as well as the impact of human activities on these systems. The goal of earth system science is to obtain scientific understanding of Earth systems over large scales of time and space.

Earth Systems Science is a broad and integrative field combining a core knowledge of geology with environmental science and societal relevance. In the past, diverse studies of volcanic activity, ocean chemistry, global climate, and biological processes would have been treated in isolation; we now recognize there are important links between them which themselves define new fields of study. Furthermore, the human population is no longer a passive spectator to Earth processes, but an active participant on a worldwide scale. Human activity has become an agent of global change, depleting energy, mineral and water resources, altering rivers, coastlines and sedimentation patterns, polluting groundwater resources, and even changing the composition of the entire atmosphere, leading to climate changes with unforeseen and perhaps irreversible consequences. Disentangling natural changes from the results of large-scale economic and technological activity is a major challenge in Earth system research.

Regardless of specialization and career path, Earth System scientists commonly apply their learning in the following ways:

to interpret Earth’s systems, their interrelationships, and effects on each other and on our human systems.
to apply understanding of Earth’s coupled atmosphere, ocean and climate systems towards informing impacts and adaptation to future changes to our built environment and the natural world.
to analyze and explain the Earth’s changing climate over various time scales and analyze the environmental, social, and geological impacts of these changes.
to make connections between geologic processes occurring on large scales of space and time with human activities, societal challenges, and issues of justice, equity and sustainability.
to recognize key surface processes and their connection to geological features and possible natural and man-made hazards.
to inform how the chemical and mechanical processes involved in the Rock Cycle intersect with human activities.
to analyze and interpret plate tectonic and deformation processes, the relationship to Earth’s structure, and the resultant geological structures and natural hazards.
to inform how the chemical and mechanical processes that are involved in the Water Cycle intersect with human activities.
to relate the distribution of natural resources to geological processes, and to inform the sustainable use and extraction of critical natural resources.