What Is Earth Science?

There are three main branches of science: life science, physical science, and earth science. In
each of these disciplines are subcategories of specific areas or fields. Life science includes
biology, ecology, or environmental science. Physical science includes chemistry and physics.
Earth science, which is the topic of this course, includes many branches, some of which we will
cover in this lesson. We will discover what geology is along with the related branches of
meteorology and oceanography.

Earth Science Is More Than You Think

Earth science is a general term referring to any studies that relate to the earth or neighboring
planets in our solar system. The four major fields in earth science include geology, the study of
the earth's structure; meteorology, the study of the weather and atmosphere; oceanography, the
study of the oceans; and astronomy, the study of the universe. There can be even further
specialization in these four fields because experts might hone in on one specific aspect in a field,
like volcanology, the study of volcanoes; seismology, the study of earthquakes; or limnology,
the study of freshwater.

Word Roots
Our language is made up of many parts of words from many different languages. Science is no
different. Many of the words we use in science and medicine have their roots in Greek and Latin.
If you are familiar with some roots and make connections with other words you know, the
meaning of many words can be deciphered.

For instance, geology is the study of the earth. Broken down into its parts, '-ology' comes from
the Greek word 'logia' and means 'the study of,' and the root 'geo-' means 'related to the earth.'
These same parts are used many places in science with similar meanings, like geography, where
'geo-' means 'the earth' and '-graphy' comes from the Greek 'graphos,' meaning 'written.' Also,
biology is the '-ology,' or 'study of,' 'bios,' or 'the way of life.'

How about some others? Meteorology can be broken apart to '-ology' from 'logia,' which we
already learned, and 'meteor-,' which is Greek for 'high in the sky.' Meteorology is the study of
weather. Oceanography, another branch of earth science, uses 'ocean,' or 'related to the ocean,'
and 'graphos,' which we learned before means 'drawing,' giving us the name for the study of the
oceans. Maybe the people naming this field thought 'oceanology' didn't have a nice ring to it.