When objects traveling at hypervelocity velocities impact liquids, they produce craters, vapor splash back, and generate strong shock waves that then propagate through the liquid. The generation of strong shocks, which results from the conversion of the projectile’s kinetic energy into the internal energy of the liquid, offers a way to study shock structure in liquids. We have developed models for the material response of both the projectile and its target. We present results of numerical simulations that illustrate these effects in water, and we show a methodology for experimental study of shock structure in liquid media.