Sandsystem

Sandsystem is a term used in sedimentology and stratigraphy to describe the integrated system of sand-sized sediment generation, transport, and deposition within a basin or coastal environment. It refers to the connected set of processes and sedimentary bodies that link source areas to depositional interfaces, forming a coherent sedimentary architecture.

A sandsystem comprises three linked components: sediment source, transport pathways, and depositional environments. The transport pathways can be aeolian winds, rivers, tides, or currents, while the depositional environments include dunes, beach and shoreline sands, deltas, channel sands, and offshore sand sheets. The resulting sand bodies exhibit characteristic architectures such as cross-bedded dunes, graded bedding, and various forms of channel and shoreline sands, often accompanied by grain-size sorting and diagenetic alteration that influence porosity and permeability.

In petroleum geology and basin analysis, sandsystem interpretation helps reconstruct palaeogeography, predict reservoir connectivity, and guide reservoir modeling. Researchers use outcrop studies, seismic data, and sequence-stratigraphic frameworks to map sandsystem tracts and assess heterogeneity within porosity and permeability distributions.

The term is most commonly encountered in geoscience literature; outside sedimentology, “sandsystem” may appear in other contexts with different meanings. There is no universally standardized definition beyond sedimentology, and some uses may refer to software or conceptual models rather than a physical sedimentary system.