Earth sciences (also known as
geoscience,
the geosciences or
Earth Science) is an all-embracing term for the
sciences related to the planet
Earth. It is a special type of
planetary science which deals with the structure and composition of the Earth, its origins, physical features, changing aspects, and all of its natural phenomena. The earth is the only planet with living things.
The major disciplines of the Earth sciences use physics, mathematics, and chemistry to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system. Like in many sciences, the Earth can be studied both experimentally and theoretically. Also, there are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth Science.
Although mining and precious stones have been human interests throughout the history of civilization, their development into the sciences of economic geology and mineralogy did not occur until the 18th century. The study of the earth, particularly palaeontology, blossomed in the 19th century and the growth of other disciplines like geophysics in the 20th century led to the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s, which has had a similar impact on the Earth sciences as the theory of evolution had on biology. Earth sciences today are closely linked to climate research and the petroleum and mineral exploration industries.
Applications of the Earth sciences include the exploration and exploitation of mineral and hydrocarbon resources, cartography, weather forecasting patterns, and warning of volcanic eruptions. The Earth sciences are related to the environmental sciences as well as the other subfields of planetary astronomy.
The
April 6-8, 2006 Tornado Outbreak was a major
tornado outbreak in the
Central and parts of the
Southern United States that began on
April 6, 2006 in the
Great Plains and continued until
April 8 in
South Carolina, with most of the activity on
April 7. The hardest-hit area was
Middle Tennessee where several strong tornadoes devastated entire neighborhoods and left nine people dead. The worst damage took place in
Gallatin, Tennessee. Other communities north of
Nashville were also hard hit. There were 73 tornadoes confirmed across 13 states, with the bulk of them coming on the afternoon and evening of
April 7 across the South, particularly in
Tennessee. In total, 13 deaths were reported as a result of the severe weather (12 of them in Tennessee) and over $1.5 billion in damage was reported,
[1] of which over $630 million was in Middle Tennessee.
[2] It was the third major outbreak of 2006, hot on the heels of
a major outbreak on
April 2. It was also considered to be the worst disaster event in Middle Tennessee since the
Nashville tornado outbreak on
April 16, 1998.
