7 May 1846 A devastating landslide obliterated the Ngāti Tūwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-west shore of Lake Taupō. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II. This remains New Zealand’s highest death toll from a landslide. Te Rapa sat below the volcanic springs of Mt Kākaramea. The […]

The Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 (ship’s time)[a] on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later

Tragedy in Wellington Harbour The sinking of the Lyttelton–Wellington ferry Wahine on 10 April 1968 was New Zealand’s worst modern maritime disaster. Fifty-one people lost their lives that day, another died several weeks later and a 53rd victim died in 1990 from injuries sustained in the wreck. The Wahine’s demise also marked a coming of age for television

The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27.[3] Across south-central Alaska, ground fissures, collapsing structures, and tsunamis resulting from the earthquake caused about 131 deaths.[4] Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the magnitude 9.2 megathrust earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world

At 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused severe damage in Christchurch and Lyttelton, killing 185 people and injuring several thousand. The earthquake’s epicentre was near Lyttelton, just 10 km south-east of Christchurch’s central business district. It occurred nearly six months after the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The earthquake struck at

Kaitangata mining disaster, 21 February 1879 The Kaitangata Mine explosion took place near Balclutha, in Otago, on 21 February 1879. Thirty-four miners died, suffocated by a belt of black damp. Black damp is the miners’ name for a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. If there is not enough oxygen in the air, miners can suffocate.

For the British it was the costliest day of the New Zealand Wars – but it occurred far from the battlefield. Bringing naval stores from Sydney, the modern 1706-ton steam corvette HMS Orpheus ran aground on the bar at the entrance to Auckland’s Manukau Harbour. Of the 259 naval officers, seamen and Royal Marines aboard, 189 died.

The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, also known as the Bhuj earthquake, occurred on 26 January at 08:46 am IST. The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Gujarat, India.[4][5] The intraplate earthquake measured 7.6 on the moment magnitude scale and occurred at 17.4 km (10.8 mi) depth.[6] It had a maximum felt intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake killed 13,805 to 20,023 people (including 18

The 1531 Lisbon earthquake occurred in the Kingdom of Portugal on the morning of 26 January 1531, between 4 and 5 o’clock.[2] The earthquake and subsequent tsunami resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths.[5][6] Despite its severity, the disaster had been mostly forgotten until the rediscovery of contemporary records in the early 20th-century.[2] Event The earthquake is believed to have been caused by the Lower Tagus Fault Zone,[4] and