levelsand

Levelsand is a fictional material used in worldbuilding, video games, and speculative geology to describe a stratified, multi-layer substrate. It is characterized by stacked layers that collectively form a single surface but display distinct internal properties.

Structure and properties: Each layer has its own grain size distribution, density, cohesion, and friction. Porosity, moisture, and strength can vary between levels, leading to different mechanical responses to loading or disturbance. The vertical axis provides a depth concept that guides movement, resource extraction, and hazard assessment.

Etymology: The name levelsand is a portmanteau of levels and sand, signaling the idea of layered, granular strata.

Applications in fiction and games: In interactive media, levelsand enables multi-layer terrain where players traverse laterally within a level and access other levels through portals, shafts, or collapses. Local disturbances may cascade between levels, revealing hidden pathways or triggering collapses.

Educational and research use: As a simplified model, levelsand helps illustrate phenomena related to layered granular media, such as percolation, segregation, and gravity-driven flow, without requiring full geotechnical realism.

See also: sediment, stratigraphy, granular material, voxel terrain.