GATE Geology & Geophysics (GG) Syllabus 2024: PDF Download, List of Chapters and Topics

Geomorphology 

Geomorphic processes and agents; tectonic geomorphology; development and evolution of landforms in continental and oceanic settings.

Resource geology

Ore-mineralogy; fluid inclusions as ore genetic tools; ore forming processes vis-à-vis ore-rock association (magmatic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, supergene, and meta morphogenic ores). Coal, marine mineral resources, and petroleum geology. 

Prospecting and exploration of economic mineral deposits

Sampling, geostatistics,  ore reserve estimation, and mining methods. Ore dressing and mineral economics. Distribution of fossil, mineral, and nuclear fuel deposits in India.

Structural geology

Forces and mechanism of rock deformation; geometry and genesis of planar and linear structures (bedding, schistosity, primary and secondary structures; cleavage, lineation); folds, joints, faults, and unconformities; Stereographic projection; shear zones, thrusts, and superposed folding; basement-cover relationship. Interpretation of geological maps.

GIS 

Basic concepts, raster, and vector mode operations.

Crystallography and mineralogy

Elements of crystal symmetry, crystallographic projection; classification of minerals, form, and twinning; crystal chemistry; optical and physical properties of rock-forming minerals.

Applied geology

Physico-mechanical properties of rocks and soils; Rock failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, rock index tests; Griffith, and Hoek-Brown criteria); rock mass classifications (RMR and Q Systems); shear strength of rock discontinuities; in-situ stresses; geological factors in the construction of engineering structures including dams, rocks as construction materials; tunnels, and excavation sites. Natural hazards (landslide, seismogenic, volcanic, coastal) and mitigation. Principles of climate change. Analysis of slope stability.

Geochemistry 

Cosmic abundance of elements; geochemical evolution of the earth; meteorites; geochemical cycles; distribution of major, minor, and trace elements in crust and mantle; isotopic evolution of the crust and the mantle, elements of high temperature and low temperature geochemical thermodynamics; mantle reservoirs; geochemistry of water and water-rock interaction.

Stratigraphy 

Principles of sequence stratigraphy and applications. Principles of stratigraphy and concepts of correlation; biostratigraphy, Lithostratigraphy, and chronostratigraphy. Boundary problems in Indian stratigraphy. Stratigraphy of peninsular and extra-peninsular India. 

Igneous petrology

Mantle plumes, hotspots, and large igneous provinces. Classification, textures, forms, and genesis of common igneous rocks; binary and ternary phase diagrams; magmatic differentiation; major and trace elements as monitors of partial melting and magma evolutionary processes. 

Global tectonics

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

Sedimentology

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

Paleobiology 

Taxonomy. Diversity of life through time, mass extinctions: taphonomy; causes and effects: processes of fossilization. Morphology and functional morphology of invertebrates (bivalves, gastropods,  brachiopods, ammonites, echinoids); microfossils (foraminifera, conodonts, ostracoda, bryozoa); Vertebrate paleontology (Probicidea, Equus, Human); Paleobotany (spores, plant, pollens). Fossils and paleoenvironments. Basic concepts of paleoecology/ecology; classification - taxonomic schemes and ecological (diversity and richness). 

Basic principles of remote sensing

Energy sources and radiation principles, interaction of energy with earth’s surface, atmospheric absorption, aerial-photo interpretation, infrared, multispectral remote sensing in visible, multispectral remote sensing in visible, thermal IR, and multispectral remote sensing in visible, digital processing of satellite images.

Metamorphic petrology

Structures and textures of metamorphic rocks. Physico-chemical conditions of metamorphism and grade, the concept of metamorphic facies, and baric types; metamorphism of pelitic, chemographic projections; mafic, and impure carbonate rocks; thermobarometry and metamorphic P-T-t paths,  the role of bulk composition including fluids in metamorphism; and their tectonic significance.

Hydrogeology 

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

Geophysical Inversion

Basic concepts of forward and inverse problems, condition number, Ill-posedness of inverse problems, non-uniqueness and stability of solutions; L1, L2, and Lp norms, underdetermined, overdetermined, and mixed determined inverse problems, Singular Value Decomposition, quasilinear and non-linear methods including Tikhonov’s regularization method, Backus-Gilbert method, swarm intelligence, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, machine learning, and artificial neural networks. Ambiguity and uncertainty in geophysical interpretation. Bayesian construction of posterior probabilities, Statistics of misfit and likelihood, sparsity promoting L1 optimization.

Geophysical Well Logging

Principles and techniques of geophysical well-logging, resistivity, SP, gamma ray,  induction, neutron, sonic, density, temperature, caliper, dip meter, nuclear magnetic resonance- longitudinal and transverse relaxation, micro-logs, porosity characterization, CPMG sequence, cement bond logging. Triaxial Induction Devices Pulsed Neutron Devices and Spectroscopy Multi-Array; Quantitative evaluation of formations from well logs; High angle and horizontal wells; Logging while drilling; Clay Quantification; Saturation and Permeability Estimation, mineral and oil exploration, Lithology and Porosity Estimation; application of bore hole geophysics in ground water. 

Radioactive Methods

Prospecting and assaying of mineral (radioactive and non-radioactive) deposits, half-life, radioactive equilibrium, decay constant, G M counter, semiconductor devices, scintillation detector, assaying, application of radiometric for exploration, and radioactive waste disposal.

Electromagnetic Methods

Biot Savart’s Law; Geo-electromagnetic spectrum; Maxwell’s Equation, Basic concept of EM induction in the earth, Helmotz Equation, Skin-depth, in-phase and quadrature components, elliptic polarization, phasor diagrams; Ground and Airborne Methods, Response function and response parameters; measurements in different source receiver configurations; geomagnetic depth sounding and magnetotellurics; Earth’s natural electromagnetic methods-tellurics, Time domain EM method; Electromagnetic profiling, and Sounding, EM scale modeling, processing of EM data and interpretation; Effect of conducting overburden; Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Methods; Geological applications including groundwater, mineral environmental and hydrocarbon exploration.

Seismic methods

Elastic properties of earth materials; Refraction, Reflection, and CDP surveys; generation of land and marine seismic sources, and propagation of elastic waves, geophones, velocity-depth models, hydrophones, digital formats, digital recording systems, field layouts, noise profile analysis and seismic noise, optimum geophone grouping, 2D, 3D and 4D seismic data acquisition, noise cancellation by shot and geophone arrays, processing and interpretation; binning, CDP stacking charts, filtering, Digital seismic data processing, static and dynamic corrections, seismic deconvolution, and migration methods, bright and dim spots,  attribute analysis, seismic stratigraphy, VSP, AVO, high resolution seismic, multi-component seismic and seismic interferometry. Reservoir geophysics- Rock Physics and Petrophysics.

Electrical Methods

Conduction of electricity through rocks, non-metals, rock-forming minerals, and different rocks, electrical conductivities of metals, Apparent Resistivity, and Apparent Chargeability, Concept of Negative Apparent Resistivity and Negative Apparent Chargeability; concepts of D.C. resistivity measurement and depth of investigation; Theory of Reciprocity, Sounding, and Profiling, application of linear filter theory, Various electrode arrangements, Sounding curves over multi-layered earth, reduction of layers, Dar-Zarrouk parameters, Triangle of anisotropy, Principles of equivalence and suppression, environmental and engineering applications, interpretation of resistivity field data, self-potential method and its origin; Induced polarization, Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT); time and frequency domain IP measurements;  interpretation, and applications of SP, resistivity and IP data set for ground-water exploration, mineral exploration.

Gravity Methods 

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

Soild-Earth Geophysics

The earth as a planet; gravity field of the earth, different motions of the earth; Clairaut’s theorem, geomagnetic field, size and shape of earth; paleomagnetism; seismology and interior of the earth; Geothermics and heat flow; variation of density, pressure, temperature, velocity, electrical and magnetic properties of the earth. 

Earthquake Seismology

Elements of Seismic Tomography. Elements of elasticity theory- dilatational, stress and strain tensors, Body and Surface Waves; Generalized Hooke’s Law; Rotational, irrational, and equivolumnal waves. Inhomogeneous and evanescent waves, Reflection and refraction of elastic waves and bounded waves; earthquakes-causes and measurements, Eikonal Equation and Ray theory; magnitude and intensity, earthquake quantification, focal mechanisms; source characteristics, digital seismographs, Earthquake statistics, seismotectonic and seismic hazards; quantifying earthquake source from seismological, data wave propagation in elastic media. 

Magnetic Methods

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

Potential and Time-Varying Fields

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

Geodesy 

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

Geophysical signal processing

Nyquist frequency, Sampling theorem, aliasing, Fourier series, periodic waveform, Z-transform, and wavelet transform; Fourier and Hilbert transform, windows, power spectrum, autocorrelation, delta function, cross-correlation, deconvolution, convolution, principles of digital filters, poles, and zeros.

Geophysical Survey Design.

Igneous Petrology 

Sedimentology 

Mineralogy and Crystallography 

Geochemistry 

Paleobiology 

Stratigraphy 

Important sedimentary basins of India 

Metamorphic Petrology 

Global tectonics 

Applied geology 

Resource Geology 

Ore dressing and mineral economics 

Hydrogeology 

Basic principles of remote sensing

Crystallography

Terrestrial planets and moons of the solar system, Earth and planetary system

A textbook of Geology

G. B. Mahapatra

Engineering Geology

R. Nagarajan, A. Parthasarathy, V. Panchapakesan

Structural Geology

Marland P Billings

Engineering and General Geology

Parbin Singh

Principles of Engineering Geology

K M Bangar

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