Outline of Earth Science - Earth's Spheres

Earth's Spheres

The Earth's spheres are the many "spheres" into which the planet Earth is divided. The four most often recognized are the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere and the geosphere. As a whole, the system is sometimes referred to as an ecosphere. Listed roughly from outermost to innermost the named spheres of the Earth are:

  • Magnetosphere
  • Atmosphere, the gases that surround the Earth (its air)
    • By altitude
      • Exosphere
      • Exobase
      • Ionosphere
      • Thermopause
      • Thermosphere
      • Mesopause
      • Mesosphere
      • Stratopause
      • Stratosphere
      • Ozone layer
      • Tropopause
      • Troposphere
      • Planetary boundary layer
    • By air turbulence
      • Heterosphere
      • Turbopause
      • Homosphere
  • Biosphere, all life on Earth
    • Anthroposphere
      • Noosphere (rare)
  • Hydrosphere, all water found on, under, and over the surface of Earth
    • Cryosphere (sometimes)
  • Pedosphere
  • Geosphere
    • Lithosphere
      • Crust (geology)
    • Asthenosphere
    • Mesosphere
    • Earth's mantle
    • Earth's core
      • Inner core
      • Outer core

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