Learn Earth Science
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Atmosphere
From the troposphere to the exosphere, study the atmosphere. Topics include the ozone layer, magnetosphere, and weather.
Geology
Geology is the study and science of Earth’s land forms. This includes how they were created, have changed over time, and how they will evolve.
Biology
Biology works with time, disease, ecosystems, and why we are here today. It also works on different scales like individual atoms to the entire biosphere.
Career
If you are interested in a career in environmental science, there are lots of opportunities available. Find out how diverse the field is.
Space
Space is beyond Earth’s atmosphere. It applies the concepts from physics, biology, and geology to explain our planet’s origin and evolution.
Water Science
Water is all around us. From oceans to freshwater lakes, this field studies everything from deep ocean water life to the flow of currents.
Atmosphere
During magnetic storms, trapped plasma flashes lights that are observable around the globe. This disturbance in the magnetosphere is the Aurora Borealis.
Highlights of the mesosphere include: (1) Air is very thin (2) It’s the coldest region of the atmosphere close to -100°C and (3) It’s where…
There is over 5500 tons of space junk above Earth’s surface. They mostly consist of small and medium debris within 700 – 36,000 km range…
Weather patterns have tremendous impacts on people and ecosystems on Earth. Let’s get started with this list of 10 unbelievable climate and weather facts.
Earth has experienced 5 large ice ages. During these frigid times, hefty layers of ice smothered the planet with temperatures 10°C lower than it is…
Whether it’s agriculture, industry, vehicles, electricity or natural disasters, these are the major air pollution sources that contribute to climate change.
Biology
If you rewind the clock 230 million years back, dinosaurs dominated the land. Not just for a short span of time. But they lived for…
The Cambrian explosion was the largest diversification of life in Earth’s history. Ocean life started as sparse and simple. Then, it remarkably diversified.
Carbon is essential for living things and making cars move. It takes up various forms through photosynthesis, decomposition, respiration and combustion.
The main idea of photosynthesis is it takes carbon dioxide from the air. Then, it uses carbon with water to convert it into a chemical…
We categorize life into 3 domains of life: eukarya, archaea and bacteria. Domains classify life in the most general way such as the presence of…
In biology, we categorize life by how similar organisms are with each other. Like a family tree, we find relationships by their classification of life.
Career
What are the branches of biology? Biology studies living things, flora and fauna. We categorize biology into botany, toxicology, ecosystem and chronology.
Astronomy is all-encompassing that studies matter outside of Earth. The branches of astronomy are astrophysics, astrometry, astrogeology and astrobiology.
From astrophysicists to arborists, this environmental science salary pyramid gives a sneak peak of how much earth scientists earn in their respective field.
Geologists study bedrock and surface rocks. They best understand how Earth’s land forms and rock change over time (physical and chemical structure).
Trying to find an environmental science career? As an environmental consultant, you ensure clients comply with regulations such as air, water, life and land.
Meteorologists partake in weather prediction. They understand atmospheric chemistry and physics and how they relate to weather and climate patterns.
Geology
Like a stack of pancakes, younger rock layers pile on top of older layers. We use the law of superposition to reveal Earth’s age and…
Conservative or transform plate boundaries slide across each other. They neither converge or diverge such as parts of the North American and Pacific Plate.
Cinder cones (also known as spatter cones) are the most common type of volcano in the world. But they are small in comparison to stratovolcanoes…
The pedosphere is like the “skin of Earth”. Just like your skin, it has a thin outer surface. It also has pore spaces and dries…
When convergent plates collide, the lithosphere thrusts upwards. This geologic process of vertical upheaving are orogenies or mountain building events.
Sandwiched between the North American & African Plates, the Eurasian Plate consists of parts of Europe, Russia, Asia as well as the Atlantic & Arctic…
Space
Our sun is a main sequence star. This just means that it burns hydrogen into helium and goes through this “main sequence” for about 95%…
Seismometers always record periodic noise. Once mysterious in nature, we attribute Earth hum to ocean waves crashing into continents, vibrating like a bell.
Planet Uranus is the coldest and has the 3rd largest radius for any planet in the solar system. It’s tilted at more 90°, it has…
How many spheres of Earth exist on Earth? If you count them all, you would get about 17 of them. This is the definitive guide…
The universe is immeasurable in size. Universe expansion is the theory that galaxies and all matter in space are increasing in distance between each other.
The dark areas on the moon are lunar maria which in Latin means “seas”. They’re called maria because early scientists believed they could see oceans…
Water
Tsunamis are long, tall waves that can be disastrous to anything nearby. But what causes tsunamis? 80% start from earthquakes. And how do tsunamis form?
Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots for ocean life. Remarkably, about 1/4 of marine species reside in them. So the spotlight is on coral reefs for…
The hydrologic cycle describes how water moves continuously in nature. From evaporation, condensation and surface runoff – water is always in motion.
When it rains, water zig-zags all the way through a tributary system to a river or lake. Like an upside-down umbrella, a watershed catches all…
Despite the popular belief that groundwater exists as a huge lake underground, water actually exists in tiny pore spaces within rock and soil beneath our…
2 theories exist for the origin of water on Earth: Did comets transport water? Or was there degassing from volcanoes from rocks existing within the…
