Executive Summary
Earth science is a quest for fundamental knowledge about the origin,
evolution, and future of the natural world. Opportunities in this science have been
opened up by major improvements in techniques for reading the geological record
of terrestrial change, capabilities for observing active processes in the present-day
Earth, and computational technologies for realistic simulations of dynamic
geosystems. The agenda for the next decade of basic research is to explore the
planet—decipher its history, understand its current behavior, and predict its
future—by exploiting and extending these capabilities. This research will
contribute to five national imperatives: (1) discovery, use, and conservation of
natural resources; (2) characterization and mitigation of natural hazards; (3)
geotechnical support of commercial and infrastructure development; (4)
stewardship of the environment; and (5) terrestrial surveillance for global security
and national defense. Progress on these practical issues depends on basic research
across the full spectrum of Earth science. The National Science Foundation
(NSF), through its Earth Science Division (EAR), is the only federal agency that
maintains significant funding for basic research in all the core disciplines of Earth
science. The health of the EAR program is therefore central to a strong national
effort in Earth science.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR BASIC RESEARCH
Basic research in Earth science encompasses a wide range of physical,
chemical, and biological processes that interact and combine in complex ways to
produce a hierarchy of terrestrial systems. EAR is currently sponsoring
investigations on geosystems that range in geographic scale from global—
climate, plate tectonics, and the core dynamo—to regional and local—
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1
About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the
original work has been recomposed from XML files created
from the original paper book, not from the original
typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths,
word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific
formatting, however, cannot be retained,
and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative
version for attribution.
Earth science is a quest for fundamental knowledge about the origin,
evolution, and future of the natural world. Opportunities in this science have been
opened up by major improvements in techniques for reading the geological record
of terrestrial change, capabilities for observing active processes in the present-day
Earth, and computational technologies for realistic simulations of dynamic
geosystems. The agenda for the next decade of basic research is to explore the
planet—decipher its history, understand its current behavior, and predict its
future—by exploiting and extending these capabilities. This research will
contribute to five national imperatives: (1) discovery, use, and conservation of
natural resources; (2) characterization and mitigation of natural hazards; (3)
geotechnical support of commercial and infrastructure development; (4)
stewardship of the environment; and (5) terrestrial surveillance for global security
and national defense. Progress on these practical issues depends on basic research
across the full spectrum of Earth science. The National Science Foundation
(NSF), through its Earth Science Division (EAR), is the only federal agency that
maintains significant funding for basic research in all the core disciplines of Earth
science. The health of the EAR program is therefore central to a strong national
effort in Earth science.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR BASIC RESEARCH
Basic research in Earth science encompasses a wide range of physical,
chemical, and biological processes that interact and combine in complex ways to
produce a hierarchy of terrestrial systems. EAR is currently sponsoring
investigations on geosystems that range in geographic scale from global—
climate, plate tectonics, and the core dynamo—to regional and local—
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1
About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the
original work has been recomposed from XML files created
from the original paper book, not from the original
typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths,
word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific
formatting, however, cannot be retained,
and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative
version for attribution.