The 1863 Hawke's Bay earthquake was a devastating magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck near the town of

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings. H ...

on 23 February 1863. It remained the single largest earthquake to strike Hawke's Bay until 1931, where a magnitude 7.8 quake leveled much of

Napier Napier may refer to: People * Napier (surname), including a list of people with that name * Napier baronets, five baronetcies and lists of the title holders Given name * Napier Shaw (1854–1945), British meteorologist * Napier Waller (1893–19 ...

and

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, and killed 256 people.

Tectonic setting

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

lies along the boundary between the

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

and

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

s. In the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the

North Island Fault System The North Island Fault System (also known as North Island Dextral Fault Belt or NIFS) is a set of southwest–northeast trending seismically-active faults in the North Island of New Zealand that carry most of the dextral (right lateral) strike- ...

(NIFS), which runs from Wellington, up Hawke's Bay and through to Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty. The 1863 earthquake is believed to have occurred outside the Mohaka Fault, just west of Waipukurau.

Reported effects

Residents living in Hawke's Bay at the time reported numerous landslides, as well as vast soil

liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of the ...

and the opening of large fissures in the ground. Residents also reported overturned furniture and snapped chimneys. According to The

Hawke's Bay Herald The ''Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune'' was a New Zealand newspaper which published from 1937 until 1999. Covering the Hawke's Bay region, it was based in Hastings. History The paper was formed in 1937 from the merger of the Napier-based ''Hawke's Bay ...

, there was considerable damage to stock in stores and hotels, and although some chimney bricks fell through roofs, no major injuries were reported. Houses were shaken off their piles. Aftershocks continued at short intervals for the rest of the morning. Outside of Hawke's Bay, the earthquake woke many people in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, causing minor structural damage but had a large toll on personal belongings. The Wellington Independent noted that the initial earthquake lasted 30–40 seconds and was followed by several smaller aftershocks. In

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

, the earthquake was described as the sharpest shock in both duration and severity since the magnitude 8.2 Wairarapa earthquake in 1855. However, no damage was sustained. In Nelson the earthquake was felt as three sharp shocks in quick succession at about 1:20 a.m. In Gisborne the earthquake was felt, but did not cause any damage.

References

{{Earthquakes in New Zealand Earthquakes in New Zealand Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay earthquake History of the Hawke's Bay Region February 1863 events 1863 disasters in New Zealand

Tectonic setting

Reported effects

See also

References