Laboratory measurements are required to establish relationships between the physical properties of unconsolidated sediments and P- and S-wave propagation through them. Previous work has either focused on measurements of compressional wave properties at depths greater than 500 m for oil industry applications or on measurements of dynamic shear properties at pressures corresponding to depths of less than 50 m for geotechnical applications. Therefore, the effects of lithology, fluid saturation, and compaction on impedance and P- and S-wave velocities of shallow soils are largely unknown. We describe two state-of-the-art laboratory experiments. One setup allows us to measure ultrasonic P-wave velocities at very low pressures in unconsolidated sediments (up to 0.1 MPa). The other experiment allows P- and S-wave velocity measurements at low to medium pressures (up to 20 MPa). We summarize the main velocity and attenuation results on sands and sand - clay mixtures under partially saturated and fully saturated conditions in two ranges of pressures (0 - 0.1 MPa and 0.1 - 20 MPa) representative of the top few meters and the top 1 km, respectively. Under hydrostatic pressures of 0.1 to 20 MPa, our measurements demonstrate a P- and S-wave velocity-dependence in dry sands around a fourth root (0.23 …

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