Scientists tracked the boomerang earthquake and showed the destruction zones in the Atlantic

Tectonic earthquakes occur when mountain plates shift or as a result of collisions of oceanic

and mainland platforms.During such collisions, mountains or depressions are formed and surface vibrations occur. During large earthquakes, rock collapse can spread along the entire fault line. Now, an international team of researchers has detected a boomerang-type earthquake, in which a rupture first propagates away from the original rupture, but then turns around and moves in the opposite direction at greater speed.

Fracture strength and duration along the faultaffect ground shaking on the surface, which could damage buildings or cause a tsunami. Ultimately, knowledge of fault fracture mechanisms and associated physics will help researchers create more accurate models and predictions of future earthquakes, and can also be used in earthquake early warning systems.

Although strong earthquakes (magnitude 7 orabove) occur on land and are measured by a nearby network of monitors (seismometers), these earthquakes often cause movement along a complex network of faults, such as dominoes. This makes it difficult to track the mechanisms underlying the origin of the seismic shear.

In 2016, they registered an earthquakemagnitude 7.1 along the Romansh fault zone and tracked the fault along the fault. This showed that initially the rupture was moving in one direction, and then reversed halfway through the earthquake and broke the "seismic sound barrier", turning into an ultra-fast earthquake.

There are only a few such earthquakes registered in the world. The team believes that the first phase of the rupture was critical in generating the second, rapidly declining phase.

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