The steep scarp marks the Wairarapa Fault, which has ruptured several times during earthquakes in the last 5,000 years. The last recorded earthquake, in 1855, caused the channel of a stream to be offset by 18.7 metres – the largest single horizontal offset during an earthquake recorded anywhere in the world. An older offset channel to the left, which moved during an earlier earthquake, is indicated in the photograph.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Victoria University of Wellington, Rodney Grapes
by Timothy Little
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11 June 2015