Hopefully your new heating element will test closer to 10-20 ohms! Congrats, that one looks like it is bad on the insides.
I haven't cut open an espresso heating element, but I believe that is a standard sheathed element. A nichrome wire insulated with a ceramic powder inside a copper or stainless alloy tube, sealed w/ ceramic, rubber, or silicone at the top. Eventually it overheats from scale (or running dry) and breaks, or the seal allows a little moisture inside with the same result.