The digitization of geological heritage is essential for geoconservation, research, and edu-cation, yet traditional 3D methods like photogrammetry struggle to accurately capture specimens with complex optical properties. This paper evaluates 3DGS (high) 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 captur-ing view-dependent phenomena such as the labradorescence of feldspar and the translu-cency of fluorite, which are poorly represented by photogrammetric textured meshes. Fur-thermore, 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.

Keywords: 3D Gaussian Splatting, radiance field, minerals, digital twin, AI, geoheritage, geoconser-vation, geotourism, geoeducation, virtual museum, photogrammetry

Cite this project as: Apopei, A. I. (2025). 3D Gaussian Splatting in Geosciences: A Novel High-Fidelity Approach for Digitizing Geoheritage from Minerals to Immersive Virtual Tours. Geosciences, 15(10), 373. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences15100373 [download link]