3D Gaussian Splatting in Geosciences: A Novel High-Fidelity Approach for Digitizing Geoheritage from Minerals to Immersive Virtual Tours

The digitization of geological heritage is essential for geoconservation, research, and education, yet traditional 3D methods like photogrammetry struggle to accurately capture specimens with complex optical properties. This paper evaluates 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) as a high-fidelity alternative. This study presents a multi-scale comparative study, digitizing landscape-scale outcrops with UAVs, architectural-scale museum interiors with smartphones, and specimen-level minerals with complex lusters and transparency. The results demonstrate that 3DGS provides unprecedented realism, successfully capturing view-dependent phenomena such as the labradorescence of feldspar and the translucency of fluorite, which are poorly represented by photogrammetric textured meshes. Furthermore, the 3DGS workflow is significantly faster and eliminates the need for manual post-processing and texture painting. By enabling the creation of authentic digital twins and immersive virtual tours, 3DGS represents a transformative technology for the field. It offers powerful new avenues for enhancing public engagement and creating accessible, high-fidelity digital archives for geoeducation and geotourism.