1848 Marlborough earthquake

Template: Infobox earthquake / Maintenance / injured missing template: Infobox earthquake / maintenance / property missing

• Wellington
• Nelson
• Wairau Valley

The Marlborough Earthquake of 1848 was the first earthquake that caused severe damage in the newly founded town of Wellington in the colony of New Zealand and had a lasting effect on its inhabitants.

The first European settlers reached Port Nicholson, the former harbor of Wellington, in 1840. Enlisted by the New Zealand Company, they did not know what awaited them there. After their arrival, the settlers became acquainted with numerous small earthquakes in the region, but unconcerned they built their city on the European model, with buildings made ​​of bricks and rubble. Cheaper buildings were made ​​of wood. So the city was ill-prepared to 16 October 1848.

Geography

The quake had its center in the Awatere Fault, the north-west of the Inland Kaikoura Range follows a valley in the region of Marlborough, the Awatere River in the north-east flows to the Pacific Ocean. The rejection has on the land side, from the Clifford Bay, a length of approximately 105 km and runs from in front of the Alpine Fault.

The quake

On October 16, 1848 at about 2:10 clock ( Other sources speak of 1:40 clock out ), during a heavy storm with lots of rain, the first shock wave was unexpected and caused the earth to shake for about two minutes, followed by strong vibrations in the next ten minutes. The quake was felt by the Hawke 's Bay down to Canterbury. Depending on the source of the strength of the quake to 7.1 MW, 7.4 MW and 7.7 MW, respectively amounted to 7.5 MW.

The judge and later politician and journalist Henry Samuel Chapman noted in his records 100 aftershocks 1:40 to 6:00 clock. For over an hour to have been observed lighter vibrations occurring every minute with shock waves.

At the time of the earthquake, the Marlborough region was still sparsely populated; Wellington and Nelson were the first two major settlements. That's why the quake affected these two cities also special. Many Māori settlements were along the eastern coast, but were not as strongly affected by damage caused by the less susceptible construction of their homes.

In Wellington were at the first shock wave many homes that were built of brick or stone, damaged. The wooden houses stood firm, but not their chimneys. Severe aftershocks on 17 October and on 19 October but then brought the damaged houses to collapse. The three people who died in the quake to death, died on 17 October in the collapse of a wall.

The Edward used 1848-1853 as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New Munster John Eyre described Wellington thereafter as "City in Ruins", "terror and horror reign everywhere", "Ships in the harbor, filled with colonialists who want to leave the country ". For the "spreading desolation and gloom ", he received public criticism from the local press. Also, it was not in the interest of the New Zealand Company, to spread the message about the earthquake because it thwarted their business with the settlements in Wellington. So the quake at the instigation of the New Zealand Company was then known very little, most still in England.

Many people slept in fear of further tremors on the ships in the harbor of Port Nicholson. When the Bark Subraon with 60 settlers on October 26, Wellington wanted to leave in the direction of Sydney, the ship struck rocks and capsized. All passengers were rescued and many of them ended up staying in Wellington for reconstruction.

After the cleanup began, the people of Wellington, preferred to build their houses in wood construction, with great foresight, as soon became apparent in the Wairarapa earthquake of 1855, only seven years later.