210 Types of Nature

John Spacey, updated on August 14, 2024

Nature is the set of systems, processes, things, events and phenomena that exist independently of humans. Although humans are part of nature, it is helpful to think of nature as separate. We are so often concerned with human things such as society, culture, economy and politics that it is instructive to think about the world that exists beyond us and its elements, cycles, components and characteristics. The following are common examples of nature.

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Elements of Nature

Elements of nature are fundamental building blocks or forces of nature. The four classical elements of nature from ancient Greek philosophy are earth, water, air and fire. Similarly, ancient Chinese philosophy references wood, fire, earth, metal and water as the basic elements. The following is an expanded modern list that includes basic elements of biology, physics and geology.

Geological Features

The physical structures and formations that make up the planet. These were formed by volcanic activity, tectonic movements, extraterrestrial impacts, biological processes and billions of years of weather that have shaped the planet into its current state. Geological features continue to be shaped by natural processes but the landscapes of Earth are now greatly influenced by human activities as well such as development and environmental engineering.

Biomes

Biomes are large ecosystems that have distinctive geological features, climate characteristics, vegetation and wildlife. These include incredibly important ecosystems that house much of the Earth's biodiversity. For example, corals reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor but support around 25% of marine species (Knowlton, 2010). Similarly, tropical rainforests cover less than 10% of the Earth's land surface but support more than 50% of known species (National Park Service, 2019).

Natural Events

Things that happen naturally without human intervention. Natural events include weather, astronomical events, sudden geological changes, light phenomena, natural cycles and events related to lifeforms.

Lifeforms

Life on planet Earth includes plants, animals and other types of species such as bacteria. Life comes in significant variety with around 8.7 million known species. Despite 250 years of scientific classifications of species, it is estimated that 86% of existing species on Earth and 91% of species in the ocean are still undocumented and relatively unknown (Mora et al, 2011).

Natural Processes

Long running change to nature such as the El Niño and La Niña climate cycle that describe periods of relative warmth and cold in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Natural processes aren't always cyclical. For example, the process of chaos whereby small parts of a large system can dramatically influence the future of that system. It is clear from modern science such as quantum theory and chaos theory that nature is probabilistic and non-deterministic. In other words, from the point of view of modern science, the future is undecided and unknowable.

Space Environment

Astronomical objects, forces, energy and phenomena outside of Earth. We often think of nature in terms of the planet Earth but of course nature actually includes the entire universe. In this context it is interesting to consider how small the Earth is in comparison. If the Earth were a grain of sand, the observable universe would be far larger than the Earth. The Earth has a diameter of about 7,918 miles or 12,742 kilometers whereas the universe is roughly 93 billion light-years in diameter. If you scaled the Earth to 1 millimeter, or about the diameter of a small piece of sand, the Universe would be about 750,000 miles in diameter at that scale ... this is a little smaller than the Sun.