An experimental technique based on image analysis was used to perform a Lagrangian description of passive pollutant particle motion in a three-dimensional saturated porous medium. To allow for optical access, the experiment was carried out with Pyrex grains as the solid matrix and glycerol as the liquid phase in order to have two phases with the same refractive index. Statistical analysis of the experimental data allowed for estimation of velocity and displacement probability density functions (pdf), velocity component correlation functions, Lagrangian integral scales, and mechanical dispersion coefficient tensor components. The results obtained suggest that the longitudinal velocity component has a log normal pdf while the transversal component has a symmetrical pdf, which is nevertheless not Gaussian for high values of the kurtosis. Furthermore, the velocity components' autocorrelation functions are well represented by exponential laws, and the integral scale is dependent on filtration velocity and grain size. As foreseen in the theory the total displacement pdf shows the tendency to reach normal distribution after many integral scales. The evaluated dispersion coefficient tensor components are dependent on travel time; the components start from zero and reach an asymptotic value after several integral scales. Furthermore, the tensor is anisotropic, with the longitudinal component greater than the transversal one by about 1 order of magnitude. Comparison with other experimental data shows agreement at least for the longitudinal dispersion component. Dagan's linear theory has been used for comparing the analytical longitudinal component of the dispersion tensor with that obtained by means of the experiments. [Bear, 1969[Bear, , 1972; Koch and Brady, 1985; Charlaix et al., 1987; Koch and Brady, 1987]. Comprehension of the phenomena at the microscopic level can furnish a valid aid in analyzing the process on a larger scale. Consequently, detailed analysis of the processes occurring when fluids flow inside the media is required. The approach should allow for determination of velocity field statistical parameters, which play an extremely important role in the Paper number 96WR00605. 0043-1397/96/96WR-00605 $09.00 dispersion process, and the influence that the various parameters involved have on the phenomenon. Both experimental and theoretical studies have been carried out on the "hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient" [Bear, 1972; Bear and l/errujit, 1987; Dagan, 1982, 1984, 1989] and the "mechanical dispersion coefficient" [Eidsath et al., 1983; Koch and Brady, 1985; Brady and Koch, 1988]. During experimental measurement of the longitudinal (i.e., parallel to the average motion direction) dispersion coefficient in the laboratory, its dependence on the Peclet number [Carberry and Bretton, 1958; Ebach and White, 1958; Neung-Won et al., 1985; Charlaix et al., 1987, 1988] and on filtration velocity [Rumer, 1962; Harleman and Rumer, 1963; Harleman et al., 1963; Carberry and Bretton, 1958; Ebach and White, 1958] have been...