A thermal extent of the sea surface layer affected by an earthquake is studied, referring to the observed temperature variations at an offshore tower station. A linear eigenvalue problem supports these variations dynamically, and a linear analysis of the variations suggests that a reversible linear problem for the problem of interest helps our qualitative understanding of a thermal extent when a technique of a finite‐segment method is applied. For convenience, the case of the 1995 Hyogo South earthquake is taken as the special reference.
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