01
Weathering & erosion
rock + water + air
↓
sediment + dissolved material
↓
sediment + dissolved material
Surface materials are broken down, transported, sorted, and redeposited by interacting geological, hydrological, and atmospheric processes.
Rock · water · air · climate · surface · deep time
Earth Science
Study Earth as a coupled planet. Rock, minerals, water, atmosphere, climate, landforms, and spatial patterns continually exchange matter and energy, so the boundaries between Earth-science fields are useful lenses rather than sealed compartments.
Coupled Earth systems
Read the planet from atmosphere to crystal, then follow the exchanges between them.
Hover or focus a system to retune the globe behind the page. The stack is spatial, not hierarchical: each field can become the starting point for a process that crosses several layers.
Cross-system time
Climate is not another physical layer.
It describes long-term behavior emerging from exchanges among atmosphere, ocean, ice, land, life, and incoming energy. That makes climatology a thread across the whole stack.
forcing · feedback · variabilityClimatologyLong-term atmospheric patterns, climate variability, forcing, feedback, paleoclimate, and interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, ice, land, and biosphere.
atmosphere ↔ ocean ↔ ice ↔ land ↔ lifeplanned branch
Two kinds of geography
Physical Geography
Earth surface patterns, landforms, water, soils, climate, and environmental processes.
Human Geography
People, places, movement, settlement, culture, economies, and spatial organization.
Process connections · reference, not navigation
Most Earth-science questions cross more than one field.
A useful boundary tells you which measurements and mechanisms to emphasize. A useful Earth-system explanation then reconnects those pieces.
02
Water cycle
ocean + land + atmosphere
↓
evaporation + precipitation + runoff
↓
evaporation + precipitation + runoff
Water changes phase and reservoir while carrying energy and material between the surface, atmosphere, ice, soils, rivers, and oceans.
03
Tectonic relief
interior energy + crust
↓
uplift + volcanism + basins
↓
uplift + volcanism + basins
Plate motion and deformation create topography that redirects water, alters habitats, exposes rock, and changes regional atmospheric circulation.
04
Climate feedback
radiation + air + water + land
↓
long-term system response
↓
long-term system response
Climate emerges from coupled exchanges among the atmosphere, ocean, ice, land, biosphere, and external forcing rather than from weather alone.