To understand how our planet works, at depth and at the surface, the ideas and principles of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Geography are integrated in the exciting and stimulating studies which make up Earth Sciences. It is a fast-moving, diversifying, multidisciplinary field that ranges from understanding Earth materials at the atomic level, through the geological processes that drive volcanoes and earthquakes, surface processes that shape landscapes and create the geological record, biological processes that build diversity and bring extinction, up to planetary-scale systems, such as plate tectonics, climate and the origins of life and ecosystems.