Earth Systems

Post date: Jan 17, 2017 4:36:44 AM

Although the four systems have their unique identities, there is a substantial interaction between them. Environmental scientists study the effects of events in one sphere on the other spheres. For example, a volcanic eruption in the geosphere may cause profound direct and indirect effects on the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

• The geosphere consists of the core, mantle and crust of the Earth.
• The atmosphere contains all of the Earth’s air and is divided into troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere.
• The hydrosphere contains all of the solid, liquid and gaseous water on Earth, extending from the depths of the sea to the upper reaches of the troposphere where water is found. Ninety-seven percent of the hydrosphere is found in salty oceans, and the remainder is found as vapor or droplets in the atmosphere and as liquid in ground water, lakes, rivers, glaciers and snowfields.
• The biosphere is the collection of all Earth’s life forms, distributed in major life zones known as biomes: tundra, boreal forest, temperate deciduous forest, temperate grassland, desert, savannah, tropical rainforest, chaparral, freshwater, and marine.