The nature of earth sciences is interdisciplinary, and, perhaps because many mathematical conventions are repeated through the Earth sciences this would indeed be the best place to get those questions answered.
What is important is to provide both the question and answer in an Earth Science context, there is a difference, for example to the following questions:
What is a Fourier transform ?
and
Why do seismologists use Fourier transforms?
The answer to both questions will undoubtedly touch into the pure mathematical nature of Fourier, but the second applies the pure mathematics.
So on this question, nuance is required.