Geosphere

Geosphere

The term Geosphere is often used to refer to the densest parts of Earth, which consist mostly of rock and regolith. [ Skinner, B: "The Dynamic Earth.", page 21. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2000 ISBN 0-471-16118-7] .

The term originally applies to the four nested geospheres identified since Meteorology (Aristotle) with the states of terrestrial matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire). The nested geospheres then include the asthenosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the ionosphere or plasmasphere. The dense geosphere is also subdivided into the crust, mantle, and core. The outer core is unusual in that it is considered to be a liquid, yet it is a part of Earth's interior.

In modern texts, geosphere refers to the solid parts of the Earth and is used along with atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere to describe the systems of the Earth. In that context, some geologists prefer "lithosphere" over geosphere, but these can be used interchangeably.

Since space exploration began, it has been observed that the extent of the ionosphere or plasmasphere is highly variable, and often much larger than previously appreciated, at times extending to the boundaries of the Earth's magnetosphere or geomagnetosphere [ Siscoe, G.: "Aristotle on the Magnetosphere, Eos Transactions of Am. Geophys. Un., v.72, pp. 69-70, 1991. ] . This highly variable outer boundary of geogenic matter has been referred to as the "geopause" [ Moore, T.E. and D.C. Delcourt, The Geopause, Revs. Geophys., v32(2), p.175, 1995.] , to suggest the relative scarcity of geogenic matter beyond it, where the solar wind dominates.

In computer graphics geosphere can also mean a polygonal tessellation, or polyhedron, used to approximate a sphere. It also commonly named geodesic sphere.

Notes


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • géosphère — ● géosphère nom féminin Partie minérale, non vivante, de la Terre, qui sert de support à l ensemble des êtres vivants. (Elle comprend l atmosphère, l hydrosphère et la partie externe de la lithosphère.) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • geosphere — 1898, from GEO (Cf. geo ) + SPHERE (Cf. sphere) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Géosphère — Sphère Pour les articles homonymes, voir Sphère (homonymie). Une sphère dans un espace euclidien En géométrie euclidienne, une sphère es …   Wikipédia en Français

  • geosphere — geosferos statusas T sritis ekologija ir aplinkotyra apibrėžtis Koncentrinės (ištisinės arba su pertrūkiais) Žemės rutulio sferos, kurios skiriasi agregatine medžiagų būsena, tankiu ir sudėtimi. Išorinės yra atmosfera, hidrosfera, vidinės – Žemės …   Ekologijos terminų aiškinamasis žodynas

  • geosphere — noun the solid body of the Earth …   Wiktionary

  • geosphere — n. solid layer (lithosphere) plus the masses of water (hydrosphere) of the Earth (separated from the atmosphere by the biosphere the zone of life) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • geosphere — geo·sphere …   English syllables

  • geosphere —   n. solid part of the earth …   Dictionary of difficult words

  • geosphere — n. 1 the solid surface of the earth. 2 any of the almost spherical concentric regions of the earth and its atmosphere …   Useful english dictionary

  • International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme — The International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is a research programme that studies the phenomenon of global change.The International Council of Scientific Unions, a coordinating body of national science organizations, launched IGBP in… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”