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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. 17.7% 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%
23k
per year above
Top-10% rate
17.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
5
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+58%
the tick is no change

What is Geology research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Continental Margin, Crustal Structure, Photogrammetry, UAV, Cenozoic Evolution, Plate Tectonics. Gaining share since 2009–13: 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 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 12 words, with their numbers
  1. Continental Margin19k▼ 0.85×2 topics
  2. Crustal Structure19k▼ 0.85×2 topics
  3. Photogrammetry15k▲ 1.34×1 topic
  4. UAV15k▲ 1.34×1 topic
  5. Cenozoic Evolution11k▼ 0.76×1 topic
  6. Plate Tectonics11k▼ 0.76×1 topic
  7. Arctic8,054◆ 1.01×1 topic
  8. geology8,054◆ 1.01×1 topic
  9. Geoheritage1,534▲ 1.18×1 topic
  10. Geotourism1,534▲ 1.18×1 topic
  11. Environmental Observations796▼ 0.58×1 topic
  12. Hydroinformatics796▼ 0.58×1 topic

Which countries lead Geology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, China, the United States and Italy rank highest in Geology. By volume, China and Indonesia publish the most (6.5k and 3.8k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China · #2 all time 24.0% top 10% · 6.5k works
  2. 2 United States · #1 all time 14.7% top 10% · 2.5k works
  3. 3 Italy · #5 all time 25.6% top 10% · 1.4k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom · #3 all time 24.9% top 10% · 748 works
  5. 5 Germany · #4 all time 18.3% top 10% · 827 works
  6. 6 South Korea · #12 all time 28.0% top 10% · 401 works
  7. 7 Australia · #6 all time 21.8% top 10% · 489 works
  8. 8 Indonesia · #16 all time 4.0% top 10% · 3.8k works
  9. 9 Spain · #9 all time 25.6% top 10% · 594 works
  10. 10 France · #8 all time 13.6% top 10% · 623 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 21 countries ranked in Geology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Geology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 6.5k works
  2. 2 Indonesia 3.8k works
  3. 3 Russia 3k works
  4. 4 United States 2.5k works
  5. 5 Italy 1.4k works
  6. 6 Germany 827 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 748 works
  8. 8 France 623 works
  9. 9 Spain 594 works
  10. 10 India 564 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: 31.7%Indonesia: 18.7%Russia: 14.4%United States: 12.2%6 others listed: 23.0%32%largest
China6,534 · 31.7%Indonesia3,847 · 18.7%Russia2,969 · 14.4%United States2,522 · 12.2%6 others listed4,732 · 23.0%

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

Which institutions lead Geology research?

Tsinghua University (China) ranks first in Geology on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by Wuhan University and Peking University.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #10 all time 43.6% top 10% · 77 works
  2. 2 Wuhan University China · Wuhan · #11 all time 40.5% top 10% · 100 works
  3. 3 Peking University China · Beijing · #29 all time 34.7% top 10% · 63 works
  4. 4 China University of Geosciences China · Wuhan · #17 all time 29.9% top 10% · 117 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #4 all time 27.0% top 10% · 153 works
  6. 6 Politecnico di Milano Italy · Milan · #5 all time 32.3% top 10% · 100 works
  7. 7 Tongji University China · Shanghai · #20 all time 31.3% top 10% · 106 works
  8. 8 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #45 all time 34.0% top 10% · 67 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #36 all time 41.3% top 10% · 61 works
  10. 10 Technical University of Munich Germany · Munich · #2 all time 33.2% top 10% · 61 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 45 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Geology.

Top 100 Geology institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Universitas Gadjah MadaIndonesia 208 works
  2. 2 Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and DevelopmentChina 196 works
  3. 3 Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 189 works
  4. 4 Bandung Institute of TechnologyIndonesia 176 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 153 works
  6. 6 Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran YogyakartaIndonesia 142 works
  7. 7 Geological InstituteRussia 135 works
  8. 8 Diponegoro UniversityIndonesia 129 works
  9. 9 National Research and Innovation AgencyIndonesia 119 works
  10. 10 China University of GeosciencesChina 117 works

Who are the leading researchers in Geology?

Among the most productive authors in Geology, Wolfram Burgard, Sebastian Thrun and Leonidas Guibas rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Wolfram Burgard Germany · #103 worldwide 6.3k citations · 232 works
  2. 2 Sebastian Thrun United States · #118 worldwide 10k citations · 122 works
  3. 3 Leonidas Guibas United States · #165 worldwide 6.3k citations · 229 works
  4. 4 Andrea Vedaldi United Kingdom · #469 worldwide 4.9k citations · 122 works
  5. 5 Alexei A. Efros United States · #1,657 worldwide 3.6k citations · 90 works
  6. 6 Brian F. Windley United Kingdom · #1,662 worldwide 3.9k citations · 89 works
  7. 7 Vladlen Koltun United States · #1,966 worldwide 3.3k citations · 81 works
  8. 8 Carlos Caldas United Kingdom · #2,558 worldwide 2k citations · 146 works
  9. 9 Silvio Savarese United States · #2,574 worldwide 3.1k citations · 158 works
  10. 10 Daniel Cremers Germany · #2,713 worldwide 4.1k citations · 231 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 4,641 highest-output authors in Geology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Geology researchers

Where is Geology research done?

The largest centres of Geology research in 2022–2025 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, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 1.9k works
  2. 2 Moscow Russia 1.1k works
  3. 3 Jakarta Indonesia 566 works
  4. 4 Wuhan China 427 works
  5. 5 Shanghai China 368 works
  6. 6 Bandung Indonesia 362 works
  7. 7 Nanjing China 338 works
  8. 8 Xi'an China 296 works
  9. 9 Yogyakarta Indonesia 288 works
  10. 10 Qingdao China 265 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SyktyvkarRU · 53.8 works24×
  2. YakutskRU · 76.7 works20×
← 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, Bandung Institute of Technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada and Polytechnic University of Bari score highest, combining 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 22.24%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Bandung Institute of Technology: 176, 7.2%Universitas Gadjah Mada: 208, 6.7%Polytechnic University of Bari: 30, 29.3%Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Yogyakarta: 142, 1.5%Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture: 38, 31.3%Politecnico di Milano: 100, 32.3%University of the Aegean: 18, 40.1%China University of Geosciences: 117, 29.9%Lomonosov Moscow State University: 189, 2.6%Southeast University: 71, 41.5%Polytechnic Universi…Bandung Institute of…Universitas Gadjah M…Universitas Pembangu…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Bandung Institute of TechnologyIndonesia 62.17.2%9.5×176 +275.0%
2 Universitas Gadjah MadaIndonesia 59.66.7%8.2×208 +479.5%
3 Polytechnic University of BariItaly 59.429.3%8.7×30 +342.3%
4 Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran YogyakartaIndonesia 58.31.5%31.9×142 +1051.8%
5 Beijing University of Civil Engineering and ArchitectureChina 57.831.3%9.8×38 +105.9%
6 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 57.132.3%5.1×100 +142.2%
7 University of the AegeanGreece 56.740.1%7.1×18 +359.6%
8 China University of GeosciencesChina 56.229.9%9.2×117 -40.4%
9 Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 53.82.6%8.0×189 +111.0%
10 Southeast UniversityChina 53.841.5%1.9×71 +209.5%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Geology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 58% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage, Geotourism and Geoheritage Conservation and Geological Studies and Exploration.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

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+214%
  2. Geotourism and Geoheritage Conservation+152%
  3. Geological Studies and Exploration+104%
  4. Environmental Monitoring and Data Management+52%
  5. Geological and Geophysical Studies+47%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. 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.