The role of selection in Earth surface systems (ESS) is widely recognized in the form of Darwinian natural selection. Biotic-abiotic interactions are evident in ecological filtering and ecosystem engineering. But selection principles also apply to geophysical, abiotic components of ESS. Natural selection an example of a wider principle summarized by variation-selection-retention (or recurrence)—the VSR logic. Application of this principle to ESS involves biotic, abiotic, and hybrid phenomena. Abiotic selection has been far less recognized and studied and is emphasized here. Emergent phenomena arising from selection are proposed as explanations for the seemingly contradictory presence of unlimited variability and recurrence of certain forms and patterns. This chapter reviews ideas about selection in geoscience contexts other than Darwinian natural selection, and provides three examples of abiotic and geophysical selection in atmospheric heat flux, form-process relationships in alluvial stream channels, and evolution of soil hydrologic systems.