Soil behavior during stress wave propagation was studied on a sand and two clays by making one-dimensional wave propagation tests on 5-meter long columns of the soils. Attempts were made to predict this behavior by determining soil properties in dynamic compression tests on small samples and by using these properties in a variety of mathematical models for soils. In all the wave propagation tests, stress and acceleration records were very similar, showing that the three soils differ in degree, not in kind. Peak stress and particle velocity attenuated to 20-40% of the peak value in the length of the 5-meter column. Two theoretical soil models were analyzed: one to investigate the effect of combined time-dependent and time-independent dissipation, and one to study the effects of nonlinear stress-strain relations and geostatic stress. Comparison of the theoretical predictions from the first of these and two previously studied models (using properties obtained from compression tests on soil samples) with the wave propagation results shows: (1) For clays the arrival time of the wave at the column base was within 10% of that calculated from the tangent modulus, and for sand it was within 25%. (2) Attenuation of peak stress and particle velocity was predicted within plus or minus 50% at the base of the column (5-meter length). (Author).