Earthquakes can apparently turn around and hit an area with a second pass – an event known as a ‘boomerang earthquake’ – in rare circumstances.
Scientists recently found evidence of the “boomerang earthquake” in a new study, marking an event that occurred in 2016 in the Atlantic Ocean.
The earthquake – which occurred near the Frache zone of the Romanche – occurred between Brazil and the west coast of Africa. There was a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in August 2016. The tremor traveled one way and then came back for a second strike, which brought an increase in velocity on the second strike, according to ScienceAlert.
Or, described another way, “the fracture initially spreads away from the first fracture, but then rotates and rotates the other way back at higher speeds,” according to Phys.org.
“Although scientists have found that such a mechanism for reversible fracture is possible from theoretical models, our new study provides some of the clearest evidence for this enigmatic mechanism occurring in real debt,” said Stephen Hicks, lead researcher and seismologist at Imperial College London.
“Even though the error structure seems simple, the way the earthquake did not grow, and this was in stark contrast to how we expected the earthquake to look before we started analyzing the data.”
The earthquake had two phases. The first traveled to the east before returning and going west.
This is, of course, the first reported incident of a boomerang earthquake. It’s so rare that it’s probably not to be found again unless National Geographic investigates it.
Evidence is growing from these events. But more research is needed to discover more.
“The theory says it’s there, but it’s very difficult to see it (in the real world),” said geophysicist Louisa Brotherson, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, simulating earthquakes.
