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Subfield · Earth and Planetary Sciences

Geology research

Geology is a subfield of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Science Explorer counts 129k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of the composition, structure, physical properties, and history of Earth's components, and the processes by which they are shaped.

Research works
129k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
13k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Geology

What is Geology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Continental Margin, Crustal Structure, Photogrammetry, UAV, Cenozoic Evolution, Plate Tectonics. Gaining share since 2011-15: Photogrammetry, UAV, Geoheritage, Geotourism. Losing share: Environmental Observations, Hydroinformatics, Cenozoic Evolution, Plate Tectonics.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 12 words, with their numbers
  1. Continental Margin18k▼ 0.82×2 topics
  2. Crustal Structure18k▼ 0.82×2 topics
  3. Photogrammetry17k▲ 1.30×1 topic
  4. UAV17k▲ 1.30×1 topic
  5. Cenozoic Evolution11k▼ 0.79×1 topic
  6. Plate Tectonics11k▼ 0.79×1 topic
  7. Arctic7,090◆ 0.88×1 topic
  8. geology7,090◆ 0.88×1 topic
  9. Geoheritage1,737▲ 1.24×1 topic
  10. Geotourism1,737▲ 1.24×1 topic
  11. Environmental Observations974▼ 0.67×1 topic
  12. Hydroinformatics974▼ 0.67×1 topic

Which countries lead Geology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Geology. By volume, China and Indonesia publish the most (7.4k and 4k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.36× citation excellence · 1.10× journals · 100% breadth 17.2% top 10% · 6.7k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 0.85× citation excellence · 1.55× journals · 100% breadth 10.2% top 10% · 2.5k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.37× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 15.5% top 10% · 748 works
  4. 4 Germany #4 all time 1.13× citation excellence · 1.41× journals · 100% breadth 10.1% top 10% · 827 works
  5. 5 France #6 all time 1.09× citation excellence · 1.27× journals · 100% breadth 8.0% top 10% · 623 works
  6. 6 Australia #5 all time 1.26× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 14.7% top 10% · 489 works
  7. 7 Italy #12 all time 1.17× citation excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 8.3% top 10% · 1.4k works
  8. 8 Spain #9 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 8.5% top 10% · 594 works
  9. 9 Canada #7 all time 1.27× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 13.5% top 10% · 414 works
  10. 10 South Korea #14 all time 1.18× citation excellence · 0.91× journals · 100% breadth 13.5% top 10% · 401 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 20 countries ranked in Geology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Geology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 7.4k works
  2. 2 Indonesia 4k works
  3. 3 Russia 3.1k works
  4. 4 United States 2.8k works
  5. 5 Italy 1.6k works
  6. 6 Germany 1k works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 838 works
  8. 8 France 691 works
  9. 9 Spain 683 works
  10. 10 India 665 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 32.5%Indonesia: 17.5%Russia: 13.7%United States: 12.4%6 others listed: 24.0%32%largest
China7,415 · 32.5%Indonesia3,999 · 17.5%Russia3,127 · 13.7%United States2,821 · 12.4%6 others listed5,474 · 24.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Geology research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Geology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by China University of Geosciences and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 21.5% top 10% · 398 works
  2. 2 China University of Geosciences China · Wuhan · #4 all time 31.1% top 10% · 117 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #3 all time 24.3% top 10% · 85 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #5 all time 8.6% top 10% · 222 works
  5. 5 Peking University China · Beijing · #14 all time 25.6% top 10% · 67 works
  6. 6 Tongji University China · Shanghai · #9 all time 18.4% top 10% · 109 works
  7. 7 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #16 all time 23.6% top 10% · 78 works
  8. 8 Wuhan University China · Wuhan · #20 all time 16.5% top 10% · 100 works
  9. 9 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Germany · Berlin · #2 all time 14.5% top 10% · 91 works
  10. 10 China University of Geosciences (Beijing) China · Beijing · #13 all time 21.6% top 10% · 95 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 47 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Geology.

Top 100 Geology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 1.5k works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 436 works
  3. 3 China National Petroleum Corporation (China)China 331 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 246 works
  5. 5 Universitas Gadjah MadaIndonesia 217 works
  6. 6 Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 194 works
  7. 7 Bandung Institute of TechnologyIndonesia 187 works
  8. 8 Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran YogyakartaIndonesia 148 works
  9. 9 Diponegoro UniversityIndonesia 131 works
  10. 10 China University of GeosciencesChina 129 works

Who are the leading researchers in Geology?

Counting only their work in Geology, Robert Jr. O. Hall, C.K. Morley and R. Dietmar Müller have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Robert Jr. O. Hall United Kingdom · #79,037 worldwide overall 33.2 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 C.K. Morley Thailand · #88,123 worldwide overall 26.0 of 69 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 R. Dietmar Müller Australia · #45,088 worldwide overall 22.5 of 62 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Fabio Remondino Italy · #680,186 worldwide overall 37.2 of 126 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Jan Inge Faleide Norway · #305,743 worldwide overall 24.2 of 87 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Peter D. Clift United States · #87,251 worldwide overall 20.8 of 66 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Bisheng Yang China · #66,603 worldwide overall 17.6 of 39 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Jack C.P. Cheng China · #12,873 worldwide overall 15.8 of 30 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Zhijun Jin China · #62,356 worldwide overall 16.9 of 45 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Xiangyu Wang Australia · #98,710 worldwide overall 15.5 of 28 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Geology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 379,385 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Geology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Geology?

The most cited paper in Geology is "The continental crust: its composition and evolution" (Brian Frederick Windley, 1986), with 11,005 citations. Next come "PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation" (9,954) and "Chronology of Fluctuating Sea Levels Since the Triassic" (7,338).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The continental crust: its composition and evolution Brian Frederick Windley · Physics of The Earth and Planetary Interiors Feb 1986 11,005
2 PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation Raffaelli Charles, Hao Su, Kaichun Mo et al. Conference paper Jul 2017 9,954
3 Chronology of Fluctuating Sea Levels Since the Triassic Bilal Ul Haq, Jan Hardenbol, Peter R. Vail · Science 6 Mar 1987 7,338
4 Biopython: freely available Python tools for computational molecular biology and bioinformatics Peter Cock, Tiago Antão, Jeffrey T. Chang et al. · Bioinformatics Open access 20 Mar 2009 6,801
5 Composition of the Continental Crust Roberta L. Rudnick, Shan Gao · Treatise on Geochemistry Book chapter 2003 6,466
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Geology research done?

The largest centres of Geology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Syktyvkar and Yakutsk.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 2.1k works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 1.2k works
  3. 3 JakartaIndonesia 589 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 467 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 397 works
  6. 6 BandungIndonesia 381 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 367 works
  8. 8 Xi'anChina 321 works
  9. 9 YogyakartaIndonesia 302 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 291 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SyktyvkarRU · 55.7 works24×
  2. YakutskRU · 80.7 works19×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Geology than the world average.

See Geology on the map

Geology research by country

The best places for Geology research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Geology?

Among universities, judged by research, China University of Geosciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tongji University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.43%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →China University of …Peking UniversityUniversity of Chines…Tongji University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1China University of GeosciencesChina 85.7#2 (#4)30.0%10.4×129 +25.9%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 81.5#3 (#3)23.7%2.1×93 +56.9%
3Tongji UniversityChina 67.5#6 (#9)17.9%2.8×118 +62.7%
4Peking UniversityChina 62.5#5 (#14)24.2%1.3×73 +101.3%
5Tsinghua UniversityChina 61.7#7 (#16)23.9%1.3×82 +91.7%
6China University of Geosciences (Beijing)China 60.9#10 (#13)21.3%13.5×106 +6.1%
7ETH ZurichSwitzerland 60.3- (#6)19.0%2.4×46 +5.0%
8Wuhan UniversityChina 56.6#8 (#20)16.6%2.8×108 +46.9%
9University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 52.2- (#12)21.4%1.1×35 +13.3%
10University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 51.6- (#17)26.3%0.9×34 +39.6%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Geology, country by country

Is Geology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage, Geotourism and Geoheritage Conservation and Environmental Monitoring and Data Management.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Geology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.14% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%Geology0.12% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Geology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Geology10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage+37%
  2. Geotourism and Geoheritage Conservation+33%
  3. Environmental Monitoring and Data Management+19%
  4. Geological and Geophysical Studies-4%
  5. Geological Studies and Exploration-16%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Geology include?

3D Surveying and Cultura…45k3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage: 45k fractional worksGeological and Geophysic…44kGeological and Geophysical Studies: 44k fractional worksGeological Studies and E…30kGeological Studies and Exploration: 30k fractional worksGeotourism and Geoheritage Conservation: 4,954 fractional worksEnvironmental Monitoring and Data Management: 4,820 fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

Share who leads Geology

Who leads Geology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Geology, for a post or a slide.

Download the card

1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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