Covers earth sciences, mineral exploration, seismology, and geophysical methods, preparing candidates for geoscience research and exploration industries.

GATE Geology and Geophysics

Official 2025 syllabus extracted from https://gate2025.iitr.ac.in/doc/2025/GATE%20_GG_2025_Syllabus.pdf

Part-A: Common Section

Earth and planetary system: terrestrial planets and moons of the solar system

Size, shape, internal structure and composition of the earth

Concept of isostasy

Elements of seismology: body and surface waves, propagation of body waves in earth's interior

Heat flow within the earth

Gravitational field of the earth

Geomagnetism and paleomagnetism

Continental drift

Plate tectonics: relationship with earthquakes, volcanism and mountain building

Continental and oceanic crust: composition, structure and thickness

Earth System and Tectonics

Weathering and soil formation

Landforms created by river, wind, glacier, ocean and volcanoes

Basic structural geology: stress, strain and material response

Brittle and ductile deformation

Nomenclature and classification of folds and faults

Geomorphology and Structural Geology

Basic crystal symmetry and concept of point groups

Silicate crystal structure

Determinative mineralogy of common rock forming minerals

Crystallography and Mineralogy

Petrology of common igneous rocks

Petrology of common sedimentary rocks

Petrology of common metamorphic rocks

Geological time scale

Geochronology and absolute time

Stratigraphic principles

Major stratigraphic divisions of India

Petrology and Stratigraphy

Mineral resources of India

Coal resources of India

Petroleum resources of India

Introduction to remote sensing

Engineering properties of rocks and soils

Elements of hydrogeology

Principles and applications of gravity, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, seismic and radiometric methods of prospecting for oil, mineral and groundwater

Introductory well logging

Resources and Geophysical Methods

Part-B1: Geology

Geomorphic processes and agents

Development and evolution of landforms in continental and oceanic settings

Tectonic geomorphology

Geomorphology

Forces and mechanism of rock deformation

Primary and secondary structures

Geometry and genesis of planar and linear structures: bedding, cleavage, schistosity, lineation

Folds, faults, joints and unconformities

Stereographic projection

Shear zones, thrusts and superposed folding

Basement-cover relationship

Interpretation of geological maps

Structural Geology

Elements of crystal symmetry, form and twinning

Crystallographic projection

Crystal chemistry

Classification of minerals

Physical and optical properties of rock-forming minerals

Cosmic abundance of elements

Meteorites

Geochemical evolution of the earth

Geochemical cycles

Distribution of major, minor and trace elements in crust and mantle

Elements of high temperature and low temperature geochemical thermodynamics

Isotopic evolution of crust and mantle

Mantle reservoirs

Geochemistry of water and water-rock interaction

Geochemistry

Classification, forms, textures and genesis of common igneous rocks

Magmatic differentiation

Binary and ternary phase diagrams

Major and trace elements as monitors of partial melting and magma evolution

Mantle plumes, hotspots and large igneous provinces

Igneous Petrology

Texture, structure and sedimentary processes

Sedimentary facies and environments

Cyclicities in sedimentary succession

Provenance and basin analysis

Important sedimentary basins of India

Sedimentology

Structures and textures of metamorphic rocks

Physico-chemical conditions of metamorphism

Concept of metamorphic facies, grade and baric types

Chemographic projections

Metamorphism of pelitic, mafic and impure carbonate rocks

Role of bulk composition including fluids in metamorphism

Thermobarometry and metamorphic P-T-t paths and their tectonic significance

Metamorphic Petrology

Diversity of life through time

Mass extinctions: causes and effects

Taphonomy: processes of fossilization

Taxonomy

Morphology and functional morphology of invertebrates: bivalves, brachiopods, gastropods, echinoids, ammonites

Microfossils: foraminifera, ostracoda, conodonts, bryozoa

Vertebrate paleontology: Equus, Proboscidea, Human

Paleobotany: plant, spores, pollens

Ecology/paleoecology concepts

Ecological and taxonomic classification schemes

Fossils and paleoenvironments

Paleobiology

Principles of stratigraphy

Concepts of correlation

Lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy

Principles of sequence stratigraphy and applications

Stratigraphy of peninsular and extra-peninsular India

Boundary problems in Indian stratigraphy

Stratigraphy

Ore-mineralogy

Ore forming processes and ore-rock association: magmatic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, supergene, metamorphogenic

Fluid inclusions as ore genetic tools

Coal and petroleum geology

Marine mineral resources

Prospecting and exploration of economic mineral deposits: sampling, ore reserve estimation, geostatistics, mining methods

Ore dressing and mineral economics

Distribution of mineral, fossil and nuclear fuel deposits in India

Resource Geology

Plate motions

Driving mechanisms

Plate boundaries

Supercontinent cycles

Global Tectonics

Physico-mechanical properties of rocks and soils

Rock index tests

Rock failure criteria: Mohr-Coulomb, Griffith, Hoek-Brown

Shear strength of rock discontinuities

Rock mass classifications: RMR and Q systems

In-situ stresses

Rocks as construction materials

Geological factors in construction of dams, tunnels and excavation sites

Analysis of slope stability

Natural hazards (landslide, volcanic, seismogenic, coastal) and mitigation

Principles of climate change

Applied Geology

Groundwater flow and exploration

Well hydraulics

Water quality

Hydrogeology

Energy sources and radiation principles

Atmospheric absorption

Interaction of energy with earth's surface

Aerial-photo interpretation

Multispectral remote sensing in visible, infrared, thermal IR and microwave regions

Digital processing of satellite images

GIS basic concepts

Raster and vector mode operations

Remote Sensing and GIS

Part-B2: Geophysics

Earth as a planet

Different motions of the earth

Gravity field of the earth, Clairaut's theorem

Size and shape of earth

Geomagnetic field and paleomagnetism

Geothermics and heat flow

Seismology and interior of the earth

Variation of density, velocity, pressure, temperature, electrical and magnetic properties of the earth

Solid-Earth Geophysics

Geoid

Ellipsoid

Geodetic reference systems

Datum

Everest (1830) and WGS 84 (1984) systems

GPS and DGPS

Levelling and surveying

Geodesy

Elasticity theory: stress and strain tensors

Generalized Hooke's law

Body and surface waves

Rotational, dilatational, irrotational and equivolumnal waves

Reflection and refraction of elastic waves

Inhomogeneous, evanescent and bounded waves

Eikonal equation and ray theory

Earthquakes: causes and measurements

Magnitude and intensity

Focal mechanisms

Earthquake quantification

Source characteristics

Seismotectonics and seismic hazards

Digital seismographs

Earthquake statistics

Wave propagation in elastic media

Quantifying earthquake source from seismological data

Elements of seismic tomography

Earthquake Seismology

Scalar and vector potential fields

Laplace, Maxwell and Helmholtz equations

Boundary value problems in Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical polar coordinates

Green's theorem

Image theory

Integral equations in potential and time-varying field theory

Potential and Time Varying Fields

Absolute and relative gravity measurements

Gravimeters

Land, airborne, shipborne and bore-hole gravity surveys

Tensorial gravity sensors and surveys

Corrections for gravity data reduction: free air, Bouguer and isostatic anomalies

Density estimates of rocks

Regional and residual gravity separation

Principle of equivalent stratum

Gravity Methods

GATE Geology and Geophysics Syllabus 2025, 2026 and more: Subjects, Topics, and What to Study

Part-A: Common Section

Part-B1: Geology

Part-B2: Geophysics