Abstract: USGS realigned the management and budget structure, changing it from a structure associated with such scientific disciplines as geography, geology, biology and hydrology to an issue-based organization for meeting evolving societal challenges in 2010. In June 2012, USGS published Science Strategy for Core Science Systems in the U.S. Geological Survey (2013—2023) as its core science research guiding principle for a long-term period. The strategy is a new earth sciences research thought raised by the USGS under the Big Data Revolution. In the science strategy, characterizing, synthesizing, and understanding the critical zone through a modular science framework become major tasks in the USGS. In the strategy, the USGS emphasizes the combination of the data-intensive scientific discovery and the earth science to fostering the development of new synthetical products demanded by science for a changing world. Strengthening the power to meet the evolving societal needs and the power to answer more complex societal challenges is one of the aims of the strategy. The strategy represents a new developing direction for the study of the earth system science.