Why is there a need to study the Earth's layers?

Earth is our home and I like to use that as an analogy. You don't need to know everything about how your home is built to live in it. read more

Understanding sedminentary rocks and stratigraphy (literally the layers of the earth) is crucial for oil and natural gas exploration. Energy companies send their teams every year to study the Book Cliffs in Utah. There are no oil deposits there but it's a great area to study depositional environments and where the good stuff is buried. read more

Considering the stone record gives us knowledge into past ecological changes, from which we may have the capacity to make forecasts about how the Earth could change later on. read more

It helps us understand the origins of the earth and how some things like plate tectonics, volcanoes, oceans and the atmosphere came to be. It's very complex. Everything in, on and around the earth gives us clues to understanding how life and the universe works. It's like a puzzle that we try to figure out. read more