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Scientists from the University of Oregon, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and other research centres in several countries made the shock discovery by analysing data from the quake. The powerful 8.2 magnitude earthquake killed 98 people and left behind a trail of destruction when it struck the southern Pacific of Mexico on September 7, 2017. But now, the joint research team - publishing a study in the Journal of Nature Geoscience - claim that not only records of seismic power were broken but a tectonic plate was also smashed in the process. Lead author Professor Diego Melgar of the University of Oregon, told National Geographic: "Everything indicates that it has been broken along its entire width.”

The report states the phenomenon, which shook the earth to its core, would have taken only 10 seconds to occur. But Professor Melgar pointed to other cases in the last century where a tectonic plate was split in half – and warned of the risk of the phenomena happening again. Seismologists believe that a previous example of a tectonic plate splitting in this way occurred in Iran in 2013, during a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that claimed the lives of dozens of people. But according to Melgar, no one knows why or how the frightening split occurred, with the recent case in Mexico only intensifies the enigma.

The powerful earthquake devastated central Mexico and killed 93 people

A map showing the risk of tsunamis caused by the huge 8.2 magnitude earthquake in 2017

The research team believe theoretically, the Cocos Plate should not have been fractured to the depth that it did, as it was "hot enough” - a scorching 1.100 ºC - to bend "like a soft plastic”. But the plate broke like a "huge block of glass", showing not only that geologists still have work to do but that such mega-earthquakes will possibly occur more frequently. Professor Melgar said: “If you think of it as a huge slab of glass, this rupture made a big, gaping crack. All indications are that it has broken through the entire width of the thing.”

The huge tremor split the Cocos tectonic plates in half, according to a new study