Principles of Stratigraphy

By Prof. Soumyajit Mukherjee | IIT Bombay

Learners enrolled: 86

ABOUT THE COURSE:

Stratigraphy deals mainly with correlation of layered rocks. In this course, we will learn different principles of such correlation for marine and non-marine rocks in local to regional scales. The subject is of paramount importance in resource geoscience and has tremendous industrial applications besides everlasting relevance in academics. Through this subject, we will also learn the Earth’s evolutionary history. Several Indian examples will be provided during the presentation.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:

B.Sc. students in (applied) geology
M.Sc. students in (applied) geophysics. They learn different geoscience disciplines first time in their M.Sc. course

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: All oil industries will be interested. Similar mining sector will be keen to learn this course.

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Earth Sciences
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	21 Jul 2025
End Date :	10 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends :	28 Jul 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	15 Aug 2025
Exam Date :	25 Oct 2025 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Geological time scale, coeval global events, mineralization, tectonics, magmatism, evolution of life.

Week 2: Introductory concepts (e.g., Steno’s laws, absolute timing and relative timing of rock formation, principle of uniformitarianism, geosynclines, flysch and molasse definitions), Walther’s law, Bouma’s sequence etc. Sedimentary environment

Week 3: Lithostratigraphy- definition of units, applications in correlation

Week 4: Biostratigraphy- introduction to fossils and use in stratigraphy, classification of organisms

Week 5: Biostratigraphy – zone fossils, biozones and applications

Week 6: Sequence stratigraphy – seal level change, depositional sequence, basic units, system tracts

Week 7: Sequence stratigraphy- examples from carbonates and non-marine rocks

Week 8: Chronostratigraphy – general principles, U-Pb, Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd dating principles

Week 9: Chronostratigraphy - , K-Ar and C¹⁴ dating principles

Week 10: Magnetostratigraphy- Cause of geomagnetism, Types of magnetic materials

Week 11: Magnetostratigraphy- magnetic polarity reversal, definition of magnetozone and applications

Week 12: A. Chemostratigraphy- rationale and applications
B. Hydrostratigraphy- basic units, definitions, problem in correlation
C. Comparison amongst different stratigraphic correlation principles- Here pros and cons of lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, sequence stratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic and hydrostratigraphic correlations will be stated and compared mutually.

Books and references

Nichols G. 2009. Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. 2^nd Ed. Wiley-Blackwell.

Instructor bio

Prof. Soumyajit Mukherjee

IIT Bombay

Prof. Soumyajit Mukherjee is a Faculty member in IIT Bombay. Has been teaching stratigraphy and structural geology through theory, practical and field courses to M.Sc. Applied Geology and Applied Geophysics students for the last 14 years in IIT Bombay. Received a Teaching Award in IIT Bombay on 2019. Ph.D.s conducted: 07.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: : October 25, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Bombay .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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