Recent analyses of complex conductivity measurements have indicated that high-frequency dispersions encountered in rocks saturated with low-salinity fluids are due to ionic surface conduction and that the form of these dispersions may be dependent upon the nature of the pore and crack surfaces within the rock (Ruffet et al., 1991). Unfortunately, the mechanisms of surface conduction are not well understood, and no model based on rigorous physical principles exists. This paper is slit into two parts: an experimental section followed by the development of a theoretical description of adsorption of ions onto mineral surfaces. We have made complex conductivity measurements upon samples of sandstone saturated with a range of different types and concentrations of aqueous solution with a frequency range of 20 Hz to 1 MHz. The frequency dependence of complex conductivity was analyzed using the empirical model of Cole and Cole (1941). The ''fractal'' surface models of Le M¿haut¿ and Cr¿py (1983), Po Zen Wong (1987), and Ruffet et al. (1991) were used to calculate apparent fractal pore surface dimensions for samples saturated with different solution types and concentrations. These showed a pronounced decrease of apparent fractal surface dimension with decreasing electrolyte concentration and a decrease of apparent fractal dimension with increasing relative ionic radius of the dominant cation in solution. A model for ionic surface concentration (ISCOM I) has been developed as the first step in producing a rigorous physicochemical model of surface conduction in quartz-dominated rocks. The results from ISCOM I show that quartz surfaces are overwhelmingly dominated by adsorbed Na+ when saturated with NaCl solutions of salinities and pH found in actual geological situations. ISCOM I also shows that the concentration threshold for dominance of surface conduction over bulk conduction is aided by depletion of ions from the bulk fluid as a result of their adsorption onto the mineral surfaces as well as by changes in the ionic mobility in the surface conduction double-layer as the wetting solution becomes more dilute. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994