Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres: the biosphere, hydrosphere/cryosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere (or lithosphere). Earth science can be considered to be a branch of planetary science but with a much older history.
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👉 Geosciences in the context of Planetary geology
Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of celestial bodies such as planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. Although the geo- prefix typically indicates topics of or relating to Earth, planetary geology is named as such for historical and convenience reasons; due to the subject matter, it is closely linked with more traditional Earth-based geology.
Planetary geology includes such topics as determining the properties and processes of the internal structure of the terrestrial planets, surface processes such as volcanism, impact craters, even fluvial and aeolian action where applicable. Despite their outermost layers being dominated by gases, the giant planets are also included in the field of planetary geology, especially when it comes to their interiors. Fields within Planetary geology are largely derived from fields in the traditional geological sciences, such as geophysics, geomorphology, and geochemistry.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Geosciences
- 👉 Geosciences in the context of Planetary geology
- Geosciences in the context of University of Calgary
- Geosciences in the context of Soil map
- Geosciences in the context of Geomathematics
- Geosciences in the context of Geoinformatics
- Geosciences in the context of Spatial resolution
Geosciences in the context of University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being instituted into a separate, autonomous university in 1966. It is composed of 14 faculties and over 85 research institutes and centres. The main campus is located in the northwest quadrant of the city near the Bow River and a smaller south campus is located in the city centre. The main campus houses most of the research facilities and works with provincial and federal research and regulatory agencies, several of which are housed next to the campus such as the Geological Survey of Canada. The main campus covers approximately 200 hectares (490 acres).
A member of the U15, the University of Calgary is also one of Canada's top research universities (based on the number of Canada Research Chairs). The university has a sponsored research revenue of $380.4 million, with total revenues exceeding $1.2 billion. The university maintains close ties to the petroleum and geoscience industry through the Department of Geosciences and the Schulich School of Engineering. The university also maintains several other departments and faculties, including the Cumming School of Medicine, the Faculty of Arts, the School of Public Policy, the Faculty of Law, and the Haskayne School of Business.
Geosciences in the context of Soil map
A soil map is a geographical representation showing diversity of soil types or soil properties (soil pH, textures, organic matter, depths of horizons etc.) in the area of interest. It is typically the result of a soil survey inventory, i.e. soil survey. Soil maps are most commonly used for land evaluation, spatial planning, agricultural extension, environmental protection and similar projects. Traditional soil maps typically show only general distribution of soils, accompanied by the soil survey report. Many new soil maps are derived using digital soil mapping techniques. Such maps are typically richer in context and show higher spatial detail, yet are not necessarily more accurate than traditional soil maps. Soil maps produced using (geo)statistical technique can also include an estimate of the model uncertainty.
In the digital era, soil maps come in various digital vector and raster formats and are used for various applications in geosciences and environmental sciences. In this context, soil maps are only visualizations of the soil resource inventories commonly stored in a Soil Information System (SIS), of which the major part is a Soil Geographical Database. A Soil Information System is basically a systematic collection of complete (values of the target soil variables available for the whole area of interest) and consistent gridded or vector soil property and/or class maps with an attached report, user manual and/or metadata. A SIS is in the most cases, a combination of polygon and point maps linked with attribute tables for profile observations, soil mapping units and soil classes. Different elements of an SIS can be manipulated and then visualized against the spatial reference (grids or polygons). For example, soil profiles can be used to make spatial prediction of different chemical and physical soil properties. In the case of pedometric mapping, both predictions and simulations (2D or 3D — geographic location plus soil depth) of values are visualized and used for GIS modeling.
Geosciences in the context of Geomathematics
Geomathematics (also: mathematical geosciences, mathematical geology, mathematical geophysics) is the application of mathematical methods to solve problems in geosciences, including geology and geophysics, and particularly geodynamics and seismology.
Geosciences in the context of Geoinformatics
Geoinformatics is a scientific field primarily within the domains of Computer Science and technical geography. It focuses on the programming of applications, spatial data structures, and the analysis of objects and space-time phenomena related to the surface and underneath of Earth and other celestial bodies. The field develops software and web services to model and analyse spatial data, serving the needs of geosciences and related scientific and engineering disciplines. The term is often used interchangeably with Geomatics, although they are not exactly same. The field of geomatics is a comprehensive discipline encompassing both geodesy and geoinformatics, thus offering a more extensive scope.
Geosciences in the context of Spatial resolution
In physics and geosciences, the term spatial resolution refers to distance between independent measurements, or the physical dimension that represents a pixel of the image. While in some instruments, like cameras and telescopes, spatial resolution is directly connected to angular resolution, other instruments, like synthetic aperture radar or a network of weather stations, produce data whose spatial sampling layout is more related to the Earth's surface, such as in remote sensing and satellite imagery.