The atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the presence of life-forms, which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions. Convective motion in the core generates electric currents through dynamo action, and these, in turn, generate the geomagnetic field. This iron core is composed of a solid inner phase, and a fluid outer phase. The interior remains active, with a thick layer of plastic mantle and an iron-filled core that generates a magnetic field. The outer surface is divided into several gradually migrating tectonic plates. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with most of the inhabited land in the Northern Hemisphere.Įarth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original conditions. 71 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by salt-water oceans. Precipitation varies widely with location, from several metres of water per year to less than a millimetre. Its most prominent climatic features are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Within the Solar System, it is third closest to the Sun it is the largest terrestrial planet and the fifth largest overall.
The Blue Marble, which is a famous view of the Earth, taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17Įarth is the only planet known to support life, and its natural features are the subject of many fields of scientific research. Depending on the particular context, the term "natural" might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural. This more traditional concept of natural things that can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. For example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". It is often taken to mean the " natural environment" or wilderness-wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. Nature can refer to the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects-the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth. Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. However, a vitalist vision of nature, closer to the pre-Socratic one, got reborn at the same time, especially after Charles Darwin. With the Industrial revolution, nature increasingly became seen as the part of reality deprived from intentional intervention: it was hence considered as sacred by some traditions ( Rousseau, American transcendentalism) or a mere decorum for divine providence or human history ( Hegel, Marx). The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers (though this word had a dynamic dimension then, especially for Heraclitus), and has steadily gained currency ever since.ĭuring the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries, nature became the passive reality, organized and moved by divine laws. In ancient philosophy, natura is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord. The word nature is borrowed from the Old French nature and is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant " birth". Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena.
The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science.
"Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe.
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