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Earth subsystems

There are 4 subsystems in the Earth system. The atmosphere is the layer of gases that
surround the Earth. The biosphere consists of all the living organisms on Earth. The
geosphere is the physical Earth, the rock magma and soil. The hydrosphere is all the water
held on the Earth.

Geosphere
There are several conflicting definitions for geosphere.
The geosphere may be taken as the collective name for the lithosphere, the hydrosphere,
the cryosphere, and the atmosphere.[1]
In Aristotelian physics, the term was applied to four spherical natural places, concentrically nested
around the center of the Earth, as described in the lectures Physica and Meteorologica. They were
believed to explain the motions of the four terrestrial elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
In modern texts and in Earth system science, geosphere refers to the solid parts of the Earth; it is
used along with atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere to describe the systems of the Earth (the
interaction of these systems with the magnetosphere is sometimes listed). In that context,
sometimes the term lithosphere is used instead of geosphere or solid Earth. The lithosphere,
however, only refers to the uppermost layers of the solid Earth (oceanic and continental crustal rocks
and uppermost mantle).[2]
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.[3] This highly variable outer boundary of geogenic matter has been referred to as
the "geopause,"[4] to suggest the relative scarcity of such matter beyond it, where the solar
wind dominates.

Hydrosphere

The hydrosphere (from Greek - hydr, "water"[1] and - sphaira, "sphere"[2]) is the
combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet.
It has been estimated that there are 1386 million cubic kilometres of water on Earth. [3] This includes
water in liquid and frozen forms in groundwater, oceans, lakes and streams. Saltwater accounts for
97.5% of this amount. Fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this fresh water, 68.7% is in the form
of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and mountain glaciers. 29.9% is in the
form of fresh groundwater. Only 0.26% of the fresh water on Earth is in easily accessible lakes,
reservoirs and river systems.[3] The total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 1018 tonnes,
which is about 0.023% of Earth's total mass. About 20 10 12 tonnesof this is in Earth's
atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic metre of water weighs one tonne). Approximately 75% of
Earth's surface, an area of some 361 million square kilometers (139.5 million square miles), is
covered by ocean. The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of
sea water (3.5%).[4]

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