The Haowhenua (

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

for 'land swallower') earthquake was a large earthquake that occurred around 1460 AD causing uplift to parts of

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 m ...

, New Zealand. In his 1923 work ''Miramar Island and its History'',

Elsdon Best Elsdon Best (30 June 1856 – 9 September 1931) was an ethnographer who made important contributions to the study of the Māori of New Zealand. Early years Elsdon Best was born 30 June 1856 at Tawa Flat, New Zealand, to William Best and the fo ...

recounted Māori stories handed down through generations about early settlement in Wellington and the uplifting of

Miramar Miramar is a place name of Spanish and Portuguese origin. It means "sea-view" or "sea sight" from ''mirar'' ("to look at, to watch") and ''mar'' ("sea"). It may refer to: Places Africa * Miramar, Port Elizabeth, see St Dominic's Priory School ...

. The present entrance to Wellington Harbour was called Te Au-a-Tane and the western channel (now the Rongotai isthmus) was called Te-Awa-a-Taia. Between the two channels sat the island of Motu-Kairangi (present day

Miramar Peninsula The large Miramar Peninsula ( mi, Te Motu Kairangi) is on the southeastern side of the city of Wellington, New Zealand, at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, in Wellington's eastern suburbs. According to Māori legend, it was formed when the ...

). Elsdon stated:

I obtained from Maori sources a story to the effect that, in the time of Te Ao-haere-tahi, who flourished eighteen generations ago, a violent earthquake-shock so lifted these lands that the Awa-a-Taia channel became dry, and Motu-kairangi a part of the mainland. We have no means of verifying such oral traditions, but it may be correct, and the shock may have been the cause of the raised beaches that form so marked and interesting a feature of the adjacent coast-line. The earthquake referred to, if it occurred in the time of Te Ao-haere-tahi, must have occurred in the fifteenth century.

A study published in 2015 showed evidence of two large earthquakes on the southern

Hikurangi Margin The Hikurangi Margin (also known as the Hikurangi Subduction Zone) is New Zealand's largest subduction zone and fault. Tectonics The Hikurangi Subduction Zone is an active subduction zone extending off the east coast of New Zealand's North Islan ...

, the area where the Pacific

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large t ...

is pushed under the Australian plate. The later of these earthquakes happened between 1430 and 1480 AD and could be the Haowhenua earthquake of Māori oral history, which described land uplift in Wellington. The earthquake probably also caused a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

: tsunami deposits dating from the 15th century have been found at many locations around the top of the South Island and up to Okupe Lagoon at Kāpiti, and other research links evidence of a huge tsunami around 1450 AD with the Haowhenua earthquake. Shells and a boulder beach found above current sea level around the Miramar Peninsula and around

Turakirae Head Turakirae Head is a promontory on the southern coast of New Zealand's North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South ...

offer supporting evidence of a large earthquake in the 15th century.

References

{{coord missing, New Zealand Earthquakes in New Zealand 15th-century earthquakes Māori history