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Kōrero: Historic earthquakes

Slips at Utapu, 1861

Image
Slips at Utapu, 1861

The explorer J. C. Crawford travelled up the Whanganui River in 1861 and recorded many landslides. In this sketch he depicts a sandstone slip behind the village at Utapu in Whanganui, noting where the hill has slipped down. There are records of earthquake-caused landslides in 1838, and there may have been further landslides from the widespread shaking of the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: E-041-042

by James Coutts Crawford

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Eileen McSaveney, Historic earthquakes – Earthquakes in Māori tradition, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/artwork/4381/slips-at-utapu-1861 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Eileen McSaveney, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009, updated 1 November 2017.