Shock-recovery experiments have been performed on Berea Sandstone under dry and water-saturated conditions using a single-stage light-gas gun. Stress levels in the range between 3.1 and 9.8 GPa were achieved by impacting projectiles in a recovery fixture. The microstructural damage of the shocked samples were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser particle analysis and X-ray computed micro tomography (XCMT). The dry samples show strongly and irregularly fragmented quartz grains with an considerably reduced porosity. In contrast, the water-saturated specimens have less grain damage and higher porosity. The water in the pores distributes the stresses which reduce the contact force between the grains during the shock compression. The dynamic fragmentation of the grain-grain interactions was modeled by explicitly treating the grain-pore structure using the Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) computational method. This is a continuum Lagrangian gridless approach that features particles. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.