Scientists detect 'boomerang' earthquake for the first time under Atlantic Ocean

After four years of research and for the first time scientists have observed an infrequent type of earthquake known as the boomerang earthquake. This earthquake could help scientists in developing an early warning system. According to international media reports scientists from the University of Southampton and Imperial College London did a study in which they found the path of this earthquake under the Atlantic Ocean. The observation brought out that quake traveled in one direction between the South American and African tectonic plates, then boomeranged back to the start at ultra-fast speeds breaking the seismic sound barrier.

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More dangerous than a normal earthquake 

As per scientists’ earthquakes usually come when pressure is built up between two pieces of Earth’s crust and it is released eventually. As a result of this, tremors are felt. If the intensity is high, the earthquakes can cause large-scale damage. But on the other hand, a boomerang earthquake is more dangerous as compared to a normal earthquake, because the high speed of the returning wave increases the area of destruction. Commenting on the boomerang earthquake scientist said that if a similar kind of earthquake hits on the land, it would extremely affect the amount of the ground shaking and possibly widen impacted area. Gathering more information and tracking more boomerang earthquakes would allow scientists to better predict future earthquakes.

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Using underwater seismic sensors, scientists detected the earthquake. The research published in Nature Geoscience reveals that the scientists recorded a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in the Atlantic Ocean in 2016. "Whilst scientists have found that such a reversing rupture mechanism is possible from theoretical models, our new study provides some of the clearest evidence for this enigmatic mechanism occurring in a real fault," said Stephen Hicks, first author of the study.

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