Peter Dockrill Science Alert Earthquakes come and go, often leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. What they don't usually do, thankfully, is turn around immediately and come back for another pass. Except... it looks like they can, in exceedingly rare circumstances. In a new study, scientists have found evidence of an unusual and virtually unprecedented 'boomerang' earthquake that shook the deep seabed underneath the Atlantic Ocean in 2016. This earthquake - termed a "back-propagating supershear rupture" - took place along the Romanche fracture zone, which lies near the equator, roughly mid-way between the east coast of Brazil and the west coast of Africa. The fracture zone, a fault running for about 900 kilometres between the South American and African tectonic plates - adjacent to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - produced a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in August 2016, which was detected by undersea seismometers in the region, as well as by distant monitoring stations. Analysis of the