The effects of barometric pressure and earth tide changes are often observed in ground water level measurements. These disturbances can make aquifer test interpretation difficult by masking the small changes induced by aquifer testing at late times and great distances. A computer utility is now available that automatically removes the effects of barometric pressure and earth tides from water level observations using regression deconvolution. This procedure has been shown to remove more noise then traditional constant barometric efficiency techniques in both confined and unconfined aquifers. Instead of a single, instantaneous barometric efficiency, the procedure more correctly accounts for the lagged responses caused by barometric pressure and earth tide changes. Simultaneous measurements of water levels (or total heads) and nearby barometric pressures are required. As an additional option, the effects of earth tides can also be removed using theoretical earth tides. The program is demonstrated for two data sets collected at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Carlsbad, New Mexico. The program is available free by request at http://www.hydrology.uga.edu/tools.html.

A deglacial chronology for northern New England has been formulated using an atmospheric 14 C calibration of the New England Varve Chronology and paleomagnetic records. This 14 C chronology is based on 14 C ages from macrofossils of non-aquatic plants and is about 1 500 yr younger than existing chronologies that are based primarily on 14 C ages of bulk organic samples. The lower and upper Connecticut Valley varve sequences of Ernst Antevs (NE varves 2 701-6 352 and 6 601-8 500) overlap (lower 6 012 = upper 6 601) based on their crudely matching varve records and their similar paleomagnetic records. Three 14 C ages at Canoe Brook, Vermont (NE varve 6 150 = 12.3 14C ka) calibrate the lower Con necticut Valley sequence. New AMS and con ventional 14 C ages on woody twigs from Newbury, Vermont calibrate the upper se quence from 11.6-10.4 14 C ka (NE varves 7 440-8 660) and are consistent with the over lapping varve and paleomagnetic records, and the Canoe Brook 14 C ages. Deglaciation of the Connecticut Valley in southern Vermont began at 12.6 14 C ka (15.2 cal ka) and the Littleton-Bethlehem Readvance in northern New Hampshire and Vermont reached its maximum at11.9-11.8 14 C ka (14.0-13.9 cal ka) followed by recession of ice into Québec at about 11.5 14 C ka (13.4 cal ka). A lake persisted in the upper Connecticut Valley until at least 10.4 14 C ka (12.3 cal ka) and may have been seen by the first humans in the area.

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The Devils River in south-central Texas is recognized as one of the remaining pristine rivers in the state. Adding to its importance, the Devils River is a key tributary to the Rio Grande, providing essential freshwater flows to south Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. An efficient conveyance system for groundwater is shown to have formed in the karst carbonate watershed, located in a semiarid environment with modest distributed recharge, oftentimes less than 1-2 cm/yr. This conveyance system comprises preferential flow pathways that developed coincident with river channels. A strong correlation between wells with high well yield and proximity to higher-order river channels (i.e., within 2.5 km) was used as evidence of the presence of preferential flow pathways. An important observation is that groundwater flow in the Devils River watershed appears to be controlled by the morphology of the area more than the bulk hydraulic properties of the rocks. Flow measurements in the Devils River measured under relatively high-and low-flow conditions support the hypothesis that the river is gaining in downstream reaches. This characteristic leads to perennial river flow being restricted to only the lower reach of the river. Last, essentially all of the recharge to Amistad Reservoir that is derived from the Devils River watershed is contributed as surface flow from the river, and there is minimal underflow or cross-formational flow from the watershed at the point where the watershed abuts Amistad Reservoir.

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