La arenisca o psamita es una roca sedimentaria de tipo detrítico, de color variable, que contiene clastos de tamaño arena. Tras las lutitas son las rocas sedimentarias más comunes en la corteza terrestre. Las areniscas contienen espacios intersticiales entre sus granos. En rocas de origen reciente estos espacios están sin material sólido mientras que en rocas antiguas se encuentran rellenos de una matriz o de cemento de sílice o carbonato de calcio. Si los espacios intersticiales no están totalmente rellenos de minerales precipitados y hay cierta porosidad éstos pueden estar llenos de agua o petróleo. En cuanto a los granos se componen de cuarzo, feldespato o fragmentos de roca. La arenisca se utiliza, entre otros usos, como material de construcción y como piedra de afilar.

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Sandstone (sometimes known as arenite) is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions. Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow percolation of water and other fluids and are porous enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs. Fine-grained aquifers, such as sandstones, are better able to filter out pollutants from the surface than are rocks with cracks and crevices, such as limestone or other rocks fractured by seismic activity. Quartz-bearing sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts.

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