In Palliser Bay, the wave was over nine metres high. Edward Jerningham Wakefield remarked that it “would convey false impressions to distant readers.”, In fact, this was Wellington’s second major earthquake in less than 10 years. As a result of such an extensive rebuild reflecting the style of the time, the town’s look is art deco. The main route from Wellington to the Wairarapa lay along this part of the coast, and involved rounding the Mukamuka rocks on the eastern flank of the Rimutaka Range—a hazardous task if wind and tide were unfavourable. The M s 7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake of 1931 February 3 (New Zealand local time) was felt throughout most of New Zealand andcaused extensive damage at Napier, Hastings, and throughout Hawke's Bay. Buildings swayed violently, and their walls bulged and collapsed into the streets in avalanches of brick and masonry that crushed vehicles and people. . In terms of loss of life (at least 256), it remains the worst civil disaster to have occurred in New Zealand. The destruction of Alfred Ludlam’s house in the Hutt Valley, 13 km north-east of Wellington, took only moments. Though smaller than the 1855 event, it had been more widely reported. The physical effects of the earthquake were as dramatic as its destructive power. The morning after the earthquake, Wellingtonians were surprised to find that the shoreline around the harbour had been upheaved by over a metre, so that high water came to only a metre or so of its former height. and is used under limited license. While you wander through town, you’ll pass by vintage shops where you can browse for trinkets and souvenirs. One man, picking himself up from the road where he had been thrown by the shock, was suddenly engulfed by the inward rush of the sea, carrying logs of wood and other debris. A tsunami has struck New Zealand’s east coast after a powerful earthquake hit the country’s South Island just after midnight. The earth movement wasn’t only vertical. It lasted about 3 or 4 minutes . These cover not just the earthquake but the fires which came shortly afterwards, the aftershocks, the notable buildings destroyed, the lives lost, the rescue work and the rebuilding effortinvolved. Although the later Murchison and Napier earthquakes claimed more lives, neither created the geological upheaval wrought by the Wairarapa earthquake of 1855. A lamp gave out its last flicker, and husband and wife were in darkness. It claimed 256 lives and in the period following, nearly 90 percent of the population fled town. Ground damage caused by the earthquake affected an area of some 52,000 sq km stretching from Kaikoura in the south to Cambridge in the north. Ludlam, sitting close to the fireplace with his wife and guests, Charles Bidwill and a man named Hutton, was jammed by a table as he tried to get up from his chair. GeoNet reports a '"strong" 5.4 magnitude earthquake has been felt 30km east of Wairoa, in the North Island.. In Wellington, Baron von Alzdorf, the owner of the largest brick building, a hotel on Lambton Quay, happened to be standing by the chimney when it fell, taking with it a wall on which a large mirror was fixed. Your dream of visiting space is becoming a reality. Although settlers were stunned and shocked by the calamity, most newspaper reports deliberately played down the event. Even then, one English journal had carried an item claiming that the “earth tremor” was “unworthy of the name of earthquake,” and had been “greatly exaggerated.”, Demolition of buildings damaged by the Wairarapa earthquake began almost immediately, business was resumed within weeks and the “virulence of politics—mitigated for a night—resumed its sway.”. The highest and oldest terrace has been displaced by 20 m vertically and 125 m horizontally, representing the amount of cumulative earthquake movement over the past 10,000 years. Somehow, these hillside houses survived the earthquake. Lieutenant Morton Jones was on deck when, a few seconds before 17- and-a-half minutes past nine, Pandora was jolted by a severe tremor. Several guests were similarly thrown off their feet. All users of our online services subject to Privacy Statement and agree to be bound by Terms of Service. About 10 minutes after the first shock, a tsunami swept the coast on both sides of Cook Strait. If you’re waiting, go around the corner to Smith and Sheth for a glass of wine and a dozen oysters--they’re among the best in the country. A tanker at sea felt a violent vibration, and the seamen on board looked to the shore to see Napier covered by a cloud of rising dust. Ninety years ago, on February 3, 1931, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked through Napier, New Zealand, rattling buildings and sparking fires that leveled the commercial center of the town. . Art deco-obsessives are likely to search out buildings in major cities where architecture boomed in the 1920s and 30s—think New York City, with its famous Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Miami, with The Webster, and of course, Paris, where it all began. The result was art deco. Many buildings combine styles, too, making for a fun scavenger hunt through town. Wellington’s Independent reported: “On Tuesday evening . They found the large wooden government buildings a “perfect wreck,” and discovered that soldiers in the military guardroom had had a narrow escape from a large falling chimney. Geologically speaking, New Zealand is one of the least “solid and immovable” places in the world. One longer-term effect of the earthquake on the growing city of Wellington was that brick was eschewed as a building material for probably the next 40 years. Napier runs south from Bluff Hill, a small promontory of Hawke Bay, along the coast and inland towards Hastings. The earthquake was devastating. The earthquake remains New Zealand's worst civil disaster, having claimed 256 lives. Ploughed ground, mud and dry river- and pond-beds “were thrown up into all sorts of undulations like a short choppy sea, the ridges in some cases 2 feet [0.6 m] in height.”. . At the time, Wellington was a medium-sized town of between 3000 and 4000 people, with more residing in the Hutt Valley. “It was not one of fear, but accompanied by a sickening sensation and an idea of general instability and the insecurity of everything which we had ever before regarded as solid and immovable. The earthquake caused extensive fissuring in coastal plains and river valleys, and loosed massive landslides in the hills, particularly in the Rimutaka Range. The earthquake virtually destroyed the Rimutaka road.
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