The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47am on 3 February, killing 256,The exact number of deaths varies according to different sources; the ''New Zealand Listener'' article cited below gives 258 deaths, but the Bateman ''New Zealand Encyclopedia'' gives 256. The difference is due to two people "missing" and presumed dead. Some articles add these two to the death toll, while others do not. injuring thousands and devastating the

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...

region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

. Centred 15 km north of Napier, it lasted for two and a half minutes and had a magnitude of 7.8 (7.7 ). There were 525

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in Epicenter, the same area of the Mainshock, main shock, caused as the displaced Crust (geology), crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthq ...

s recorded in the following two weeks, with 597 being recorded by the end of February. The main shock could be felt in much of New Zealand, with reliable reports coming in from as far south as

Timaru Timaru (; ) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to peo ...

, on the east coast of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

Tectonic setting

New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian plate and Pacific plates. In the

most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral)

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

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 (NIFS) (also known as North Island Dextral Fault Belt or North Island Shear Belt) is a set of southwest–northeast trending seismically-active faults in the North Island of New Zealand that carry much of the dextra ...

(NIFS). The earthquake is thought to have occurred on one of the larger

thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that ...

faults within the

accretionary wedge An accretionary wedge or accretionary prism forms from sediments accreted onto the non- subducting tectonic plate at a convergent plate boundary. Most of the material in the accretionary wedge consists of marine sediments scraped off from the ...

, at between ca. 5 km depth and ca. 20–25 km depth (which is the approximate depth of subducted Pacific plate at that location).

Damage and effects

Nearly all buildings in the central areas of Napier and Hastings were levelled ( ''The Dominion'' noted that "Napier as a town has been wiped off the map"). It was, at the time, New Zealand's most damaging earthquake to buildings since European settlement began around 1840. The material damage of the earthquake was estimated at $. The local landscape changed dramatically, with the coastal areas around Napier being lifted by around two metres.''New Zealand Historical Atlas'' – McKinnon, Malcolm (Editor);

David Bateman David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

, 1997, Plate 87 The most noticeable land change was the uplifting of some 40 km² of sea-bed to become dry land. This included

Ahuriri Lagoon Ahuriri Lagoon () was a large tidal lagoon at Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, that largely drained when the area was raised by the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. Before the earthquake, the lagoon stretched several kilome ...

, which was lifted more than 2.7 metres and resulted in draining of the lagoon. Today, this area is the location of

Hawke's Bay Airport Hawke's Bay Airport , commonly referred to as Napier Airport, is Hawke's Bay's main commercial airport, serving domestic flights to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and smaller centres such as Gisborne. The airport i ...

, housing and industrial developments and farmland.

Fires

Within minutes fires broke out in a few chemist shops in Hastings Street, Napier. The fire brigade almost had the first fire under control when the second broke out in a shop at the back of the Masonic Hotel. The fire continued to spread through adjoined wooden buildings, which led to the entire town being engulfed in flames by the afternoon. The wind at this point also picked up strength and began blowing from the east, pushing the fires back over the city. The day was hot and dry which increased the fire's ability to spread. With water mains broken, the brigade was unable to save many buildings. Attempts were made at pumping water from the sea, but these failed. Fire engines at Napier's central fire station were covered in debris from the earthquake which made them unavailable for use. Pumping water from Clive Square, they were able to stop the fires spreading south. Only a few buildings in the central Napier area survived. Some withstood the earthquake only to be gutted by fire. Trapped people had to be left to burn as people were unable to free them in time. It took until the following afternoon for the main fires to go out, but the ruins still smouldered for several days. In Hastings, the fires were quickly brought under control.

Utilities

The entire east coast of the North Island lost electricity during the quake, although power was restored to

Masterton Masterton () is a large town in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand that operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa ...

Pahiatua Pahiatua () is a rural service town in the south-eastern North Island of New Zealand with a population of . It is between Masterton and Woodville, New Zealand, Woodville on New Zealand State Highway 2, State Highway 2 and along the Wairarapa Lin ...

Dannevirke Dannevirke ( "Earthworks (archaeology), work of the Danes", a reference to Danevirke; or ''Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua'', the area where the town is) is a rural service town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is the ...

and

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, New ...

within two hours, and to Gisborne within ten hours. At Napier substation, the transformers were tipped over by the force of the quake and the high-voltage switchgear damaged, while the Napier to

Tuai Tuai is a village and rural community located around Lake Whakamarino, in the Wairoa District of the Hawke's Bay Region, on New Zealand's North Island. The local Tuai Power Station was opened in 1929 on the shores of Lake Whakamarino, as part ...

transmission line was taken out of service after a landslide caused a tower to collapse. A limited supply was restored to Napier and Hastings on 4 February; due to the damage at Napier substation, the Waipukurau to Napier transmission line was jumpered to the low-voltage switchgear at both ends. The Napier to Tuai line was repaired and put back into service on 12 February, while full supply to Napier substation was restored on 29 March. There was also severe damage to sewerage systems, gas supply and telegraph systems.

Transport

The earthquake caused great damage to Napier's roads, railways, bridges and wharves. Rails were badly twisted. The city's

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

tracks were also twisted, and were never restored. New Zealand's first commercial air disaster occurred six days after the quake, when a Dominion Airlines Desoutter monoplane crashed near Wairoa. The small airline had been making three return trips a day between Hastings and Gisborne, carrying passengers and supplies. All three on board were killed.

Miscellaneous

A group of prisoners working at Bluff Hill in Napier had four of their number buried in a landslip by the quake. The remaining prisoners dug them out, but two had been killed. The prisoners re-assembled without any attempt to escape and were locked up in the Napier Jail. In Taradale, Mission Estate missionaries' accommodation block had been built and opened on 2 February. The next day the earthquake struck, causing serious damage to the entire Mission. Two priests and seven students were killed when the stone chapel was destroyed. In

Havelock North Havelock North () is a town in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island of New Zealand, situated less than 2 km south-east of the city of Hastings. It was a borough for many years until the 1989 reorganisation of local government saw it merg ...

, St Luke's church was damaged (but not destroyed) just before a wedding was due to take place. The couple got married later in the day, but outdoors. About 10 per cent of homes on soft ground in Napier experienced ground damage, such as liquefaction. There was a large amount of damage to buildings, mainly ones made of brick; the earthquake occurred before an earthquake building code was introduced. The Napier ''Daily Telegraph'' newspaper office was destroyed, and so was the ''Hawke's Bay Herald''s printing facility in Hastings. Napier Technical College was destroyed, which caused it to be disestablished and amalgamated into

Napier Girls' High School Napier Girls' High School is a state secondary school on Clyde Road, Napier, New Zealand. It is one of the oldest schools in New Zealand for girls, and has a current school roll of about 1000. History In July 1883 plans were submitted to the ...

and

Napier Boys' High School Napier Boys' High School is a secondary boys' school in Napier, New Zealand. It currently has a school roll of approximately pupils. The school provides education from Year 9 to Year 13. Headmasters The following is an incomplete list of Na ...

Casualties

The official death toll was 256 although the Napier earthquake memorial lists 258 names. Of these, 161 people were in Napier, 93 in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

and two in

Wairoa Wairoa is the largest town in the Wairoa District and the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of Mā ...

. Thousands more were injured, with over 400 being hospitalised. There were several places that had multiple deaths, including 17 deaths due to Roach's department store collapsing, 15 in an old men's home, 9 students in Napier Technical College, 8 from Grand Hotel and 7 at the Greenmeadows seminary.

Response

Shortly after the earthquake, people escaped to the

Marine Parade Marine Parade is a planning area and residential estate located on the eastern fringe of the Central Region of Singapore. Straddling the tip of the southeastern coast of Pulau Ujong, Marine Parade serves as a buffer between the Central and ...

Beach. After noticing that the shoreline had receded, they ran away in panic under the expectation that a tsunami was on its way. There was, however, no tidal wave; the receded shoreline was caused by the land moving upwards.On 4 February over 5,000 people evacuated Napier, mainly women and children. Men were expected to stay to help out with the recovery. The army and navy also arrived in Napier to help with the recovery. Nelson Park served as Napier's "evacuation centre" which was the site of many tents and was able to cater for over 1,000 people from a

field kitchen A field kitchen (also known as a battlefield kitchen, expeditionary kitchen, flying kitchen, or goulash cannon) is a kitchen used primarily by military, militaries to provide hot food to troops near the front line or in temporary encampments. Des ...

. Many people also lived in tents in

and other places. There were several places that gave out free food in Napier and Hawke's Bay, such as in several schools. Water barrels were also kept full to allow for people to take from them, after losing water access from their homes. Within four days of the quake, cinemas around New Zealand offered news specials about the disaster.

HMS ''Veronica''

The death toll might have been much higher had the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ship HMS ''Veronica'' not been in port at the time. Within minutes of the shock the ''Veronica'' had sent radio messages asking for help. The sailors joined survivors to fight the fires, rescue trapped people and help give them medical treatment. The ''Veronicas radio was used to transmit news of the disaster to the outside world and to seek assistance. The crew from two cargo ships, the ''Northumberland'' and ''Taranaki'', also joined the rescue works, while two cruisers, HMS ''Diomede'' and HMS ''Dunedin'', were dispatched from Auckland that afternoon with food, tents, medicine, blankets, and a team of doctors and nurses. The cruisers sailed at high speed overnight, arrived on 4 February and provided valuable assistance in all areas until their departure on 11 February.

Aftershocks

On 13 February, Hawke's Bay was struck by a 7.3 aftershock. At the time, this was New Zealand's fourth strongest recorded earthquake. Author Matthew Wright reported that "the power failed three seconds before the earthquake was felt in Napier. People from Napier to

ran for their lives as previously damaged buildings cracked and fell". He added "Some inland parts of Hawke's Bay felt this aftershock more strongly than 3 February quake ... but 'there was no damage of any moment'. People rushed into the streets in Dannevirke and Masterton. In Wellington all but one of the clocks stopped working in the Dominion Observatory, and ceiling lights in the Evening Post offices swayed more vigorously than they had the week before". The earthquake of 13 February 1931 is widely regarded as an aftershock of the larger event ten days earlier. But Messrs Adams, Barnett and Hayes commenting on the rapid decline in the frequency of aftershocks in the Journal of Science & Technology stated, "The fresh outbreak on the 13th February, due to the severe shock on that date, may almost be regarded as a separate disturbance, although it probably arose from conditions produced by the original shock on the 3rd". Aftershocks continued to shake Hawke's Bay frequently until July 1931, where the average aftershock occurrence dropped to less than one daily. Aftershocks continued for a few more years, with the last major jolt shaking the Bay in April 1934. Below is a list of all recorded aftershocks following the main event. In all, 597 earthquakes were recorded at Hastings in February 1931, and more than 900 by the end of December 1931.

Recovery

The government quickly realised that the Napier borough council would be overwhelmed with organising the rebuild and appointed two commissioners for this task, John Barton and Lachlan Bain Campbell. When the commissioners were due to leave in May 1933, they were petitioned to stay, and Barton was invited to stand for the mayoralty, which he declined. Several temporary structures were built following the earthquake, including the shopping centre commonly referred to as Tin Town in Clive Square. It remained for about two years, housed over 50 businesses, and was created with a £10,000 loan which did not have to be paid back. According to ''

The Press ''The Press'' () is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand, owned by media business Stuff (company), Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday t ...

'', it was the world's first "pop-up mall". The earthquake prompted a thorough review of New Zealand

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for construction objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permis ...

s, which were found to be totally inadequate. The first earthquake building code was created in 1935. Many buildings built during the 1930s and 1940s are heavily reinforced, although more recent research has developed other strengthening techniques. Building regulations established as a result of this event mean that to this day, there are only four buildings in Hawke's Bay taller than five storeys, and as most of the region's rebuilding took place in the 1930s when

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

was fashionable, Hawke's Bay architecture is regarded today as being one of the finest collections of Art Deco in the world. At the time of the earthquake, there were no national emergency response organisations or legal provisions in case of such disaster, which was a hindrance to recovery. As a result, new legislation had to be passed quickly, such as the Hawke's Bay Earthquake Act 1931 which received assent on 28 April to give out loans for the rebuild. The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

caused difficulty gathering funds however, so a large portion came from charity. On the tenth anniversary of the earthquake, the ''

New Zealand Listener The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, f ...

'' reported that Napier had risen from the ashes like a phoenix. It quoted the 1931 principal of

as saying "Napier today is a far lovelier city than it was before". The New Napier Carnival was held in January 1933 to celebrate the rebuild of the town, which officially declared it reborn.

Memorials

common grave A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pur ...

was created on 5 February 1931 to bury 101 of the earthquake's victims. Architect J. A. Louis Hay started designing a memorial for the site in 1932, which consists of an obelisk, a garden, the text "Their sun is gone down while it is yet day" and a written list of the victims known to be buried there. A clock tower memorial was built in Hastings in 1935, which serves the purpose of symbolising recovery rather than being a memorial. Hastings holds a commemoration every year on 3 February for the earthquake, which starts at 10.30am and has clock towers ring at 10.47, which was the same time the earthquake struck. The HMS ''Veronica'' Sunbay memorial is located on Marine Parade, which remembers the crew of the ship ''Veronica''. It was built in 1934 and named in 1937 after the ship was decommissioned. The ship's bell is used for community services. The council decided in 2024 that the memorial will be restored again after it was deemed potentially unsafe.

Gallery

File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake (24629925176).jpg, Road damage File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Port Ahuriri (24024285884).jpg, Port Ahuriri File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Napier Post Office (24289573619).jpg, Napier Post Office File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Wairoa Post Office (24657555975).jpg, Wairoa Post Office File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Collapsed Building (unidentified) (24655070915).jpg, Collapsed building (unidentified) File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Town Hall, Napier (24529620482).jpg, Town Hall File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Baker and Pastrycook shop, Waipawa (24026499144).jpg, Baker and Pastrycook shop, Waipawa File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Dr Moore's Private Hospital (24555825871).jpg, Dr Moore's Private Hospital File:1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Port Ahuriri - HMS Veronica at Wharf (24025654223).jpg, Port Ahuriri - HMS Veronica at Wharf

Notes

References

* * * *Bateman '' New Zealand Encyclopedia'', edition 4 (1995). Article: ''Napier'' *

External links

Art Deco NapierHawkes Bay Disaster
1965 film on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkes Bay 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake