Geospatial–Temporal Quantification of Tectonically Constrained Marble Resources Within the Wadi El Shati Extensional Regime via Multi-Sensor Sentinel and DEM Data Fusion

This study addresses a critical knowledge gap in quantifying strategic mineral resources within hyper-arid, tectonically complex terrains by establishing a recursive framework that reconciles deterministic resource estimation with the nonlinear dynamics of tectonically mediated metamorphic systems. Using Libya’s Wadi El Shati as a case study, legacy lithological misclassifications are rectified through the fusion of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar, Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery, and Digital Elevation Model analytics within a unified geospatial workflow. The methodology synergizes atmospherically corrected optical data, processed via supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification, with calibrated radar-derived structural lineaments. Classified marble-bearing zones within the Al Mahruqah Formation are integrated with DEM data and field-validated thickness measurements using Triangulated Irregular Network models to resolve surface–subsurface dependencies and compute volumes. The results demonstrate a 91% lithological classification accuracy, rectifying a 22% error in legacy maps. Structural analysis of 1213 lineaments confirms a dominant NE–SW extensional regime (σ3) that facilitated fluid conduits. The quantified marble-bearing horizon spans ~334 km2 with a volume of 6.0 km3 (±9%). Spatial analysis reveals a causal link between high-grade marble clusters, basaltic intrusions, and NE–SW fault systems, refining models of contact metamorphism in rift-related settings.