Geology vs. Earth Science vs. Geoscience

Geology vs. Earth Science vs. Geoscience Geology, Earth science and geoscience are different terms with the same literal definition: the study of the Earth. In the academic world and professional realm, the terms may be interchangeable or have different connotations  based on how they are being used.  Over the last few decades, many colleges and universities have changed their geology degrees to Earth science or geoscience or added those as separate degrees altogether.     On Geology Geology is the older word and has a much longer history. In that sense, geology is the root of Earth science. The word arose before todays scientific discipline. The first geologists werent even geologists; they were natural philosophers, academic types whose novelty lay in extending the methods of philosophy to the book of nature. The first meaning of the word geology, in the 1700s, was a treatise, a theory of the Earth, much like Isaac Newtons triumph,  the cosmology or theory of the heavens, a century before. The still earlier geologists of medieval times were inquisitive, cosmological theologians who treated the Earth by analogy to the body of Christ and paid scant attention to rocks. They produced some erudite discourse and fascinating diagrams, but nothing that we would recognize as science. (Todays Gaia hypothesis might be thought of as a New Age version of this long-forgotten world view.) Eventually, geologists shook off that musty medieval mantle, but their subsequent activities gave them a new reputation that was to haunt them later. Geologists are the ones who explored the rocks, mapped the mountains, explained the landscape, discovered the Ice Ages and laid bare the workings of the continents and the deep Earth. Geologists are the ones who found aquifers, planned mines, advised the extractive industries, and laid straight the road to wealth based on gold, oil, iron, coal and more. Geologists put the rock record in order, classified the fossils, named the eons and eras of prehistory and laid out the deep foundation of biological evolution.   I tend to think of geology as one of the true original sciences, along with astronomy, geometry and mathematics. Chemistry began as a purified, laboratory child of geology. Physics originated as an abstraction of engineering. This is not to downplay their wonderful progress and great stature, but only to establish priority. On Earth Science and Geoscience   Earth science  and geoscience gained currency with newer, more interdisciplinary tasks that build upon the work of the geologists. To put it simply, all geologists are Earth scientists, but not all Earth scientists are geologists.   The twentieth century brought revolutionary progress to every field of science. It was the cross-fertilization of chemistry, physics and computation, newly applied to the old problems of geology, that opened up geology into a wider realm referred to as Earth science or geoscience. It seemed like a whole new field in which the rock hammer and field map and thin section were less relevant.   Today, an Earth science or geoscience degree entails a much wider realm of subjects than a traditional geology degree. It studies all of Earths dynamic processes, so typical coursework may include oceanography, paleoclimatology, meteorology and hydrology as well as normal traditional geology courses like mineralogy, geomorphology, petrology and stratigraphy.   Geoscientists and Earth scientists do things that geologists of the past never contemplated. Earth scientists help oversee remediation of polluted sites. They study the causes and effects of climate change. They advise the managers of lands, wastes and resources. They compare the structures of planets around our Sun and around other stars. Green and Brown Science It appears that educators have had an extra effect as curriculum standards for primary and secondary-school students have grown more complex and involved. Among these educators, the typical definition of Earth science is that it consists of geology, oceanography, meteorology and astronomy. As I see it, geology is a burgeoning set of subspecialties that is expanding into these neighboring sciences (not oceanography but marine geology; not meteorology but climatology; not astronomy but planetary geology), but thats clearly a minority opinion. A basic Internet search turns up twice as many Earth science lesson plans as geology lesson plans.   So where are we today? I see the field dividing into two pedagogical tracks: Geology is minerals, maps and mountains; rocks, resources and eruptions; erosion, sediment and caves. It involves walking around in boots and doing hands-on exercises with ordinary substances. Geology is brown. Earth science and geoscience are the study of geology as well as pollution, food webs, paleontology, habitats, plates and climate change. It involves all of Earths dynamic processes, not just those on the crust. Earth science is green. Maybe its all just a matter of language. Earth science and geoscience are as straightforward in English as geology is in scientific Greek. And as a sarcastic defense to the increasing popularity of the former terms - how many college freshmen know Greek?   Edited by Brooks Mitchell