Tele-seismic coseismic well temperature changes and their interpretation

Coseismic water level oscillation and correlated deep water temperature changes have been observed in a water well at Tangshan City by high sensitivity measurement. Amount of water temperature changes depend on amplitude of water level oscillation. Coseismic water temperatures always decrease as water level oscillates, drop of temperature ranges from 0.001℃ to 0.01℃ corresponding to amplitude of water level oscillation from several centimeters to about one meter. Temperatures usually recover one to several hours after the oscillation. We suggest that the temperature drop is produced by dispersive transfer of heat as the water oscillates, and follow-up thermal conduction makes temperature recovery. Our finite element calculations support quantitatively the idea. High accuracy measurements of water temperature at different depths in the future may test our interpretation.