Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.
Geophysics is a powerful tool for understanding how our planet works. It enables us to connect complex real-world phenomena with fundamental physical laws, deduce the nature of otherwise inaccessible regions of the Earth, frame natural processes and events in terms of cause and effect, and mathematically model and predict the future behavior of components of the Earth.
Earth System geophysics recognizes the critical importance of interactions between the components of the Earth System—the solid earth, oceans, atmosphere, and even the biosphere—in achieving that understanding. An Earth System perspective also recognizes convection as a universal process and a unifying theme for studying the Earth.
A new book in AGU’s Advanced Textbook Series, Earth System Geophysics, helps upper-level students learn how to apply math and physics to understand the operation of the Earth System. Here, we asked the book’s author to explain how an Earth Systems approach bolsters the study of geophysics and how to make these topics engaging and accessible to students.
Why take an Earth Systems approach to studying geophysics?
There was a time when geophysics was mainly devoted to the study of the ‘solid earth’—the crust we stand on and the mantle and core below. With that focus, it made sense to treat plate tectonics as the unifying theme. But why limit our view to the solid earth? The oceans and atmosphere also behave geophysically and are ultimately driven by the same kind of process—convection—behind plate tectonics. Furthermore, studying the solid earth alone would be incomplete if interactions with the rest of the Earth System were ignored.
Idealized conception of mantle convection, including descending lithospheric slabs, upwelling plumes, and broad background flow. These components of mantle convection can interact with the core, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere in different ways. Credit: Jellinek and Manga [2004], Figure 17
How did you come up with the idea for the Earth System Geophysics textbook?
When I first started teaching at SUNY-Binghamton, I was given free rein to teach the ‘rest’ of geophysics, in other words, anything non-seismological. My research has always been ‘global’—involving the various ways Earth’s rotation can be affected by plate motions, ocean tides, and the oceans’ response to atmospheric pressure variations—so it seemed natural to take a global approach in teaching. And, that global approach apparently increased students’ interest (even to the point where they didn’t mind complex math being introduced)! However, I could find no existing geophysics textbook with an Earth System Science approach at the level I wanted to teach this material.
How is the textbook organized?
The textbook comprises two parts: (I) An Earth System Science Framework and (II) A Planet Driven by Convection. The first part includes chapters on Earth’s origin, the evolution of its atmosphere, and the climate system. The second part covers gravity, seismology, heat flow, and geomagnetism, with frequent application to the Earth System.
How could instructors use this textbook in their teaching, and who is the intended audience?
The textbook is fairly lengthy—an unavoidable consequence of trying to explain how the Earth works! Instructors using the entire book to teach about geophysics in the Earth System should plan on a two-semester course. However, as outlined in the textbook’s preface, combinations of different portions of the book can serve as the basis for a variety of one-semester courses, including traditional solid-earth geophysics, climate change, and seminar classes exploring geophysical research.
This book’s primary audience is geology students at the senior undergraduate or beginning graduate level, whose exposure to basic physical geology has been supplemented by at least one semester each of calculus and college physics but who may be somewhat unconfident about using math and physics to understand the Earth. Undergraduate and graduate students majoring in geophysics, physics, and engineering, as well as students working toward a master’s in Earth science teaching, can benefit from this textbook too.
How does your textbook make geophysics accessible to students?
Geophysics is intrinsically a mathematically intensive field, and—on several levels—many students find that daunting. My textbook introduces mathematical concepts gently and builds gradually; where possible, qualitative interpretations are also presented.
For example, the concept of gradient is first discussed qualitatively in early chapters. Then, it is expressed mathematically using simple calculus. The relevant mathematical and qualitative concepts build throughout the book, until (in the final two chapters) students are able to fully appreciate and employ the gradient as a three-dimensional vector.
What special features appear in your textbook?
Perhaps my most notable feature is the use of ‘stop and think’ questions—moments where I pause the narrative and directly address the reader, in effect encouraging the reader to connect the subject being discussed with previous material (or, sometimes, to anticipate impending material). Additionally, I use specific formatting to highlight definitions of essential terms, explanations of key concepts, and important formulas and equations. Also, a companion website includes homework exercises for each chapter and brief guidance for instructors on the mathematical level of each chapter.
Another feature I’m very proud of is the extensive reference list and abundant in-text citations. In an era when the honesty and validity of science are repeatedly questioned, those citations emphasize that science is not just a story created out of thin air to make some conclusion believable; it is a synthesis of independent results obtained by a great number of peer-reviewed researchers.
Finally, numerous color figures throughout enhance what is already interesting subject matter.
Earth System Geophysics, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-119-62797-5. List price: $169.95 (hardcover), $136 (e-book).
The preface is freely available. Visit the book’s page on Wiley.com and click on “Read an Excerpt” below the cover image.
Editor’s Note: It is the policy of AGU Publications to invite the authors or editors of newly published books to write a summary for Eos Editors’ Vox.
—Steven R. Dickman ([email protected], 0000-0001-5909-453X), Binghamton University, United States
Citation: Dickman, S. R. (2025), An Earth System Science approach to geophysics, Eos, 106,https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO255013. Published on 1 April 2025.
This article does not represent the opinion of AGU, Eos, or any of its affiliates. It is solely the opinion of the author(s).
Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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