The department has one geologist who is actively pursuing multitudes of research projects on planetary geosciences. Solid Earth group concerns itself with the study of processes associated with the origin and evolution of various rocks and minerals on Earth and nearby solar system bodies, particularly the Moon and Mars. The specific research themes include the study of evolution of Earth’s mantle and lower crust, behaviour of trace and rare-earth elements in igneous and metamorphic systems, chromite genesis in ultramafic-mafic rocks, mineral deposits associated with various rok types and significance of fluid inclusions in economic mineral deposits, stable and radioactive isotopes in igneous petrogenesis and genesis of anorthosites in earth and moon.

The Geology group is planning to develop an active research base in Planetary Geoscience studies at the institute. The faculty has started collaboration with SAC, Ahmadabad and PRL, Ahmadabad on future Planetary Science exploration programmes such as PLANEX and Chandrayaan-2. The group has started working on identifying and studying terrestrial sites that are lunar and Martian analogues. Geological fieldwork will be carried out at these sites in addition to mock in-situ experiments for the proposed space planetary missions.