QuakeQuake

On 3 February 1931, Hawke's Bay was shattered by the largest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand. It was a disaster of national proportions, damaging buildings from Gisborne to Wanganui, a catastrophe that officially killed 256 and seriously injured more than 400. Fresh pictures, diaries and eyewitness accounts have continued to emerge, painting a picture of immediacy that spans the decades. Scientific analysis has revised most of the previously accepted details of the seismic event, including the strength of the quake - recalculated in 1981 to have had a magnitude of 7.8. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, Matthew Wright brings the tragic events of February 1931 to life in this account of New Zealand's most destructive natural disaster.