Rare "boomerang" earthquake detected under the Atlantic Ocean for the first time - CBS News

For years, scientists have been attempting to track an extremely rare "boomerang" earthquake.

Now, they've recorded one in the ocean for the first time — and it's even more bizarre than they expected. .

A "boomerang" earthquake, also known as a "back-propagating supershear rupture," means the fracture travels away from the initial crack before returning to it at even faster speeds, scientists said. .

According to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team, led by scientists from the University of Southampton and Imperial College London, successfully recorded a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on August 29, 2016.

Researchers said the 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" — a sonic boom of sorts. 

Only a handful of boomerang earthquakes have ever been recorded — the phenomenon has mostly been theoretical, until now. 

Scientists said that if a similar type of quake occurred on land, it would drastically affect the amount of ground shaking — and possibly widen the affected area