GATE Syllabus for Geology & Geophysics includes the topics from common section of Geology & Geophysics and separate section from Geology and Geophysics. GATE exam will be of 100 marks with 65 questions. The duration of the examination is three hours. The paper code Geology & Geophysics is GG. GATE 2020 Will be conducted from February 01, 02, 08 and 9, 2020 in multiple sessions.

The exam will have core subject and general aptitude questions. 85% of the questions are asked from subject topics and 15% of the questions are from general aptitude section. The candidates appearing in GATE 2020 exam should know the complete syllabus. GATE Syllabus for Geology & Geophysics comprises three sections which are:

• Common Section to Geology & Geophysics (GG)
• Geology
• Geophysics

Direct link to download GATE Geology and Geography (GG) syllabus PDF 

Geology is the study of the Earth. It includes composition and material, structure, processes, and history. Geophysics is the study of the Earth by quantitative physical methods. It is an applied science and includes the Earth’s interior, crust, oceans, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

---

GATE Syllabus for Geology & Geophysics - Common Section

Earth and Planetary system, size, shape, internal structure and composition of the earth; atmosphere and greenhouse effect; isostasy; elements of seismology; physical properties of the interior of the earth; continents and continental processes; physical oceanography; geomagnetism and paleomagnetism, continental drift, plate tectonics.

Weathering; soil formation; action of river, wind, glacier and ocean; earthquakes, volcanism and orogeny. Basic structural geology, mineralogy and petrology. Geological time scale and geochronology; stratigraphic principles; major stratigraphic divisions of India. Engineering properties of rocks and soils. Ground water geology. Geological and geographical distribution of ore, coal and petroleum resources of India.

Introduction to remote sensing. Engineering properties of rocks and soils. Ground water geology. Principles and applications of gravity, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, seismic and radiometric methods of prospecting for oil, mineral and ground water; introductory well logging.

---

GATE Syllabus for Geology & Geophysics - Geology Section

Geomorphic processes and agents; development and evolution of landforms; slope and drainage; processes in deep oceanic and near-shore regions; quantitative and applied geomorphology.

Mechanism of rock deformation; primary and secondary structures; geometry and genesis of folds, faults, joints and unconformities; cleavage, schistosity and lineation; methods of projection; tectonites and their significance; shear zones; superposed folding; basement-cover relationship.

Crystallography- symmetry, forms and twinning; crystal chemistry; optical mineralogy, classification of minerals, diagnostic 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 geochemical thermodynamics; isotope geochemistry; geochemistry of waters including solution equilibria and water-rock interaction.

Igneous rocks– classification, forms and textures; magmatic differentiation; binary and ternary phase diagrams; major and trace elements as monitors of partial melting and magma evolutionary processes. Sedimentary rocks – texture and structure; sedimentary processes and environments, sedimentary facies, provencance and basin analysis. Metamorphic rocks – structures and textures.

Physico-chemical conditions of metamorphism and concept of metamorphic facies, grade and baric types; metamorphism of pelitic, mafic and impure carbonate rocks; role of fluids in metamorphism; metamorphic P-T-t paths and their tectonic significance. Association of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks with tectonic setting. Igneous and metamorphic provinces and important sedimentary basins of India.

Morphology, classification and geological significance of important invertebrates, vertebrates, plant fossils and microfossils. Principles of Stratigraphy and concepts of correlation – lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and chrono stratigraphy. Indian stratigraphy – Precambrian and Phanerozoic. Overview of Himalayan Geology.

Ore-mineralogy and optical properties of ore minerals; ore forming processes vis-à- vis ore-rock association (magmatic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, supergene and met morphogenic ores); fluid inclusions as an ore genetic tool. 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. Origin and distribution of mineral, fossil and nuclear fuel deposits in India.

Engineering properties of rocks and soils; rocks as construction materials; role of geology in the construction of engineering structures including dams, tunnels and excavation sites; natural hazards. Ground water geology – exploration, well hydraulics and water quality. 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.

---

GATE Syllabus for Geology & Geophysics - Geophysics Section

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; earthquakes-causes and measurements, magnitude and intensity, focal mechanisms, earthquake quantification, source characteristics, seismotectonics and seismic hazards; digital seismographs,

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 theory; Eikonal equation and Ray theory.

Absolute and relative gravity measurements; Gravimeters, Land, airborne, shipborne and bore-hole gravity 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.

Elements of Earth’s magnetic field, units of measurement, magnetic susceptibility of rocks and measurements, magnetometers, Land, airborne and marine magnetic 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-geometrical shaped bodies, depth estimates, Image processing concepts in processing of magnetic anomaly maps; Interpretation of processed magnetic anomaly data. Applications of gravity and magnetic methods for mineral and oil exploration.

Conduction of electricity through rocks, electrical conductivities of metals, nonmetals, rock forming minerals and different rocks, concepts of D.C. resistivity measurement, various electrode configurations for resistivity sounding and profiling, application of filter theory, Type-curves over multi-layered structures, Dar-Zarrouck parameters, reduction of layers, coefficient of anisotropy, interpretation of resistivity field data, equivalence and suppression, self-potential and its origin, field measurement, Induced polarization, time and frequency domain IP measurements; interpretation and applications of IP, ground-water exploration, mineral exploration, environmental and engineering applications.

Basic concept of EM induction in the earth, Skin-depth, elliptic polarization, inphase and quadrature components, Various EM methods, measurements in different source-receiver configurations, Earth’s natural electromagnetic field, tellurics, magneto-tellurics; geomagnetic depth sounding principles, electromagnetic profiling, Time domain EM method, EM scale modeling, processing of EM data and interpretation. Geological applications including groundwater, mineral and hydrocarbon exploration.

Seismic methods of prospecting; Elastic properties of earth materials; Reflection, refraction and CDP surveys; land and marine seismic sources, generation and propagation of elastic waves, velocity – depth models, geophones, hydrophones, recording instruments (DFS), digital formats, field layouts, seismic noises and noise profile analysis, optimum geophone grouping, noise cancellation by shot and geophone arrays, 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation; CDP stacking charts, binning, filtering, dip-moveout, static and dynamic corrections, Digital seismic data processing, seismic deconvolution and migration methods, attribute analysis, bright and dim spots, seismic stratigraphy, high resolution seismics, VSP, AVO. Reservoir geophysics.

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

Principles and techniques of geophysical well-logging, SP, resistivity, induction, gamma ray, neutron, density, sonic, temperature, dip meter, caliper, nuclear magnetic, cement bond logging, micro-logs. Quantitative evaluation of formations from well logs; well hydraulics and application of geophysical methods for groundwater study; application of bore hole geophysics in ground water, mineral and oil exploration.

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

Basic concepts of forward and inverse problems, ill-posedness of inverse problems, condition number, non-uniqueness and stability of solutions; L1, L2 and Lp norms, overdetermined, underdetermined and mixed determined inverse problems, quasilinear and non-linear methods including Tikhonov’s regularization method, Singular Value Decomposion, Backus-Gilbert method, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and artificial neural network.

---

GATE 2020 Paper Pattern

GATE Exam Pattern is defined paper wise depending upon candidates’ branch. For this year, IIT Guwahati will hold the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). The exam includes 2 types of Questions - Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) & Numerical Answer Type (NAT).

• The exam is held in online mode on multiple shifts.
• GATE is consists of three sections i.e. Engineering Mathematics, General Aptitude, and specific subject of the paper.
• The total number of questions in GATE exam is 65.
• Applicants have to attempt all the questions in the duration of three hours.
• There is two type of questions namely- Multiple Choice types (MCQ) and Numerical Answer Type (NAT).
• Maximum marks for the paper is 100.
• There is no negative marking for NAT but it is applicable for MCQs.  For 1 mark MCQs, 1/3 marks will be deducted for every wrong answer. Likewise, for 2 marks MCQs, 2/3 marks will be deducted.

Recommended Books for Preparation

GATE Sample Papers

Candidates who are applying for GATE 2020 Geology & Geophysics paper can refer the sample papers to get a fair idea of how the actual exam can be expected to be. By solving sample papers, you can get familiar with GATE Exam Pattern and difficulty level of the actual test.

The table below represents the last few years sample papers: 

---