front that generates significant transient tension in the liquid. Pressure sensors mounted along the liquid column measure the incident pressure pulse that moves up the column as well as the peak tension in the liquid caused by the reflected tensile pulse. [@Trevena1987] To access even greater loading rates, Erlich et al. [@Erlich1971] pioneered the use of spall experiments, which had previously been used to study the dynamic fracture of solids, to study cavitating liquids. In these experiments a planar shock wave is driven into a target liquid, typically using the impact of a flyer plate, and allowed to reflect from a free surface at the rear of the sample. As will be described in Section \[PIexperiments\], the maximum tension within the liquid can be inferred by observing the time evolution of the free-surface velocity. [@Antoun2003] Such experiments determine the critical tension at which the liquid begins to fail in tension under the loading conditions of the experiment, a value typically referred to as *spall strength*. In spall tests, the loading dynamics ensure that cavitation originates within the bulk liquid, rather than at the walls of the container, which means that the maximum tension is a true measurement of the limit 