GATE Geology and Geophysics Syllabus 2025: Check Topics, Weightage, Download 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 the 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.

Weathering and Soil Formation

Landforms created by rivers, wind, glaciers, oceans, and volcanoes.

Basic Structural Geology

Stress, strain, and material response; Brittle and ductile deformation; Nomenclature and classification of folds and faults.

Crystallography

Basic crystal symmetry and concept of point groups.

Mineralogy

Silicate crystal structure and determinative mineralogy of common rock-forming minerals.

Petrology

Petrology of common igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

Geological Time Scale

Geochronology and absolute time.

Stratigraphy

Stratigraphic principles; Major stratigraphic divisions of India.

Resource Geology

Mineral, coal, and petroleum resources of India.

Remote Sensing

Introduction to remote sensing.

Engineering Geology

Engineering properties of rocks and soils.

Hydrogeology

Elements of hydrogeology.

Geophysical Methods

Principles and applications of gravity, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, seismic, and radiometric methods of prospecting for oil, mineral, and groundwater; Introductory well logging.

Part-B (B1): Geology

Geomorphology

Geomorphic processes and agents; Development and evolution of landforms in continental and oceanic settings; Tectonic geomorphology.

Structural Geology

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.

Crystallography and Mineralogy

Elements of crystal symmetry, form, and twinning; Crystallographic projection; Crystal chemistry; Classification of minerals, physical and optical properties of rock-forming minerals.

Geochemistry

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 the crust and mantle, mantle reservoirs; Geochemistry of water and water-rock interaction.

Igneous Petrology

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 evolutionary processes; Mantle plumes, hotspots, and large igneous provinces.

Sedimentology

Texture, structure, and sedimentary processes; Petrology of common sedimentary rocks; Sedimentary facies and environments, cyclicities in sedimentary succession; Provenance and basin analysis; Important sedimentary basins of India.

Metamorphic Petrology

Structures and textures of metamorphic rocks; Physico-chemical conditions of metamorphism and 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.

Paleobiology

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); Basic concepts of ecology/paleoecology; Classification - ecological and taxonomic schemes (diversity and richness); Fossils and paleoenvironments.

Stratigraphy

Principles of stratigraphy and 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.

Resource Geology

Ore-mineralogy; Ore forming processes vis-à-vis ore-rock association (magmatic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, supergene, and meta morphogenic ores); 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.

Global Tectonics

Plate motions, driving mechanisms, plate boundaries, supercontinent cycles.

Applied Geology

Physico-mechanical properties of rocks and soils; Rock index tests; Rock failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, Griffith, and Hoek-Brown criteria); Shear strength of rock discontinuities; Rock mass classifications (RMR and Q Systems); In-situ stresses; Rocks as construction materials; Geological factors in the construction of engineering structures including dams, tunnels, and excavation sites; Analysis of slope stability.

Natural Hazards

Landslide, volcanic, seismogenic, coastal hazards, and mitigation; Principles of climate change.

Hydrogeology

Groundwater flow and exploration, well hydraulics, and water quality.

Remote Sensing

Basic Principles of Remote Sensing: 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.

Part-B (B2): Geophysics

Solid-Earth Geophysics

The Earth as a planet; Different motions of the Earth; Gravity field of the Earth, Clairaut’s theorem, size, and shape of Earth; Geomagnetic field, paleomagnetism; Geothermics and heat flow; Seismology and interior of the Earth; Variation of density, velocity, pressure, temperature, electrical, and magnetic properties of the Earth.

Geodesy

Gravitational Field of the Earth; Geoid; Ellipsoid; Geodetic Reference Systems; Datum; Everest (1830) and WGS 84 (1984) systems; GPS and DGPS; Levelling and Surveying.

Earthquake Seismology

Elements of 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 and evanescent waves 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.

Potential and Time Varying Fields

Scalar and vector potential fields; Laplace, Maxwell, and Helmholtz equations for solution of different types of boundary value problems in Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical polar coordinates; Green’s theorem; Image theory; Integral equations in potential and time-varying field theory.

Gravity Methods

Absolute and relative gravity measurements; Gravimeters; Land, airborne, shipborne, and bore-hole gravity surveys; Tensorial Gravity sensors and surveys; Various corrections for gravity data reduction – free air, Bouguer, and isostatic anomalies; Density estimates of rocks; Regional and residual gravity separation; Principle of equivalent stratum; Data enhancement techniques, upward and downward continuation; Derivative maps, wavelength filtering; Preparation and analysis of gravity maps; Gravity anomalies and their interpretation – anomalies due to geometrical and irregular shaped bodies, depth rules, calculation of mass.

Magnetic Methods

Elements of Earth’s magnetic field, units of measurement, magnetic susceptibility of rocks and measurements, magnetometers and magnetic gradiometers; Land, airborne, and marine magnetic and magnetic gradiometer surveys; Various corrections applied to magnetic data, IGRF, Reduction to Pole transformation; Poisson’s relation of gravity and magnetic potential field; Preparation of magnetic maps, upward and downward continuation, magnetic anomalies due to geometrical and irregular shaped bodies; Image processing concepts in processing of magnetic anomaly maps; Depth rules; Interpretation of processed magnetic anomaly data; Derivative, analytic signal, and Euler Depth Solutions; Applications of gravity and magnetic methods for mineral and oil exploration.

Electrical Methods

Conduction of electricity through rocks, electrical conductivities of metals, non-metals, rock-forming minerals and different rocks; Concepts of Maxwell’s equations and constitutive relations; Effects of temperature and pressure on the electrical properties of rocks; Basic principles of electrical resistivity prospecting; Geometrical factor, apparent resistivity, theory of DC resistivity methods, configurations used in resistivity profiling and sounding, Vertical Electrical Sounding, self-potential (SP) method, determination of depth of burial, and estimation of the width of the anomalous body; Field surveys, and interpretation; Resistivity of ionic solutions; Electrical Analog modeling; Basic principles of electromagnetic (EM) induction, Maxwell’s equations, constitutive relations, EM properties of rocks, magnetic vector potential, wave equations, dispersion relations, EM waves in half-space; Skin depth and Fresnel’s zone; Basic principles of Electromagnetic induction prospecting, VLF, EM profiling, EM sounding, Time Domain EM method, Ground Penetrating Radar, Field surveys, and interpretation.

Seismic Methods

Seismic instruments, seismometer, geophone, and hydrophone, principles of signal processing, 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D seismic surveys, Common Depth Point (CDP) survey, Roll-along method, principle of Digital signal processing, Fourier Transform, digital filtering, correlation, convolution, and deconvolution, Velocity Analysis, Stacking, Interpretation of Seismic reflection and refraction data.

Well Logging

Basic principles of well logging, different types of logging techniques and their applications (SP, resistivity, porosity, nuclear, sonic, temperature, etc.), Multi-tool logging and their applications.

Mathematical Methods

Vector algebra and calculus, linear algebra, Fourier analysis, Laplace, and Z transforms, finite difference and finite element methods.

Nuclear Physics

Basic Principles of nuclear physics, nuclear moments, nuclear models, nuclear decay, and radiation; Radioactivity; Nuclear reactions, nuclear energy; Interaction of nuclear particles with matter; Radiation detectors.

Electromagnetic Theory

Maxwell’s equations; EM wave propagation in a conducting medium; Plane wave reflection from the surface of a conducting medium; Reflection and transmission coefficients; Diffusion of EM fields in a conducting medium; Propagation of EM fields in thin sheets and stratified media; Waveguides; Group and Phase Velocities, Dispersion Relations, and Attenuation; Magnetotellurics; Introduction to Electromagnetic Scattering and Radar Cross Section (RCS).

GATE Best Books 2025

GATE Exam Pattern 2025

Verbal Aptitude

Basic English Grammar: Tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb-noun agreement, other parts of speech

Basic Vocabulary: Words, idioms, phrases in context, reading and comprehension, narrative sequencing

Quantitative Aptitude

Data Interpretation: Data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, other data representations), 2D and 3D plots, maps, tables

Numerical Computation and Estimation: Ratios, percentages, powers, exponents, logarithms, permutations, combinations, series

Mensuration and Geometry

Elementary Statistics and Probability

Analytical Aptitude

Logic: Deduction and induction

Analogy

Numerical Relations and Reasoning

Spatial Aptitude

Transformation of Shapes: Translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling, grouping

Paper Folding, Cutting, and Patterns: 2D and 3D patterns

Common Section

25-30%

Structural Geology

6-8%

Resource Geology

6-8%

Igneous Petrology

5-7%

Geomorphology

5-7%

Solid-Earth Geophysics

8-10%

Earthquake Seismology

7-9%

Gravity Methods

Magnetic Methods

Electrical Methods

Seismic Methods

8-10%

Electromagnetic Theory

Structural Geology

Marland P Billings

Engineering and General Geology

Parbin Singh

A Textbook of Geology

G. B. Mahapatra

Principles of Engineering Geology

K M Bangar

Engineering Geology

R. Nagarajan, A. Parthasarathy, V. Panchapakesan

GATE Geology and Geophysics

Amaresh Singh, Jitendra Mishra