Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Episode Information and Audio

When the Siren Goes Episode 2 – Earthquakes

This programme explores what happens when earthquakes occur, looking at the science behind the study of major fault lines, and tracing the history of a catastrophic event in the Wellington-Wairarapa area in 1855. Lessons drawn from that event are woven into present-day civil defence planning, resulting in events like the Capital Quake Exercise, a nationwide simulation based on a 7.6 magnitude earthquake rupturing the Wellington Fault and causing substantial damage across central New Zealand. (duration: 22′15″)

The Day the Earth Shifted in 1855

On 23rd February 1855, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake – the most powerful ever recorded in New Zealand – rocked the southern part of the North Island. In this documentary, Jack Perkins explores what happened through the reading of archival letters and journals, field recording, and interviews with historical and scientific experts. The documentary provides a vivid glimpse of what it must have been like at the time, and reflects on what its implications are for us today. It includes a recording of a 100-year-old woman recalling her memory of the event when she was aged five.
NRP0435, broadcast Sun 2 Jul 2006 (Sound Archives reference) (duration: 49′09″)

Conducting a seismic survey

Surrounded by lush Central Otago hills and paddocks, a team of researchers are laying microphones along the ground. They’ve got a sledgehammer poised over a steel plate and an improvised shotgun ready to shoot into the topsoil. What on earth are they up to? They’re geologists out on a seismic survey – monitoring echoes from different rock strata underground to build up a picture of an unmapped fault line. Andrew Gorman and Claudina Curran from the University of Otago show Dacia Herbulock that you don’t always need highly sophisticated equipment to get the job done.
Our Changing World segment 13 December 2007 (duration: 12′08″)

After the Inangahua Earthquake of 1968

On 24 May 1968 an earthquake hit Inangahua Junction, a tiny farming, sawmilling and coal mining community 40km east of Westport on the South Island's West Coast. The damage was severe, as 70% of the dwellings in the town were left uninhabitable. This documentary recorded immediately after the event includes accounts by numerous residents of the devastation they had lived through. Produced and presented by Jim Henderson.
Sa-t-0628-pm After the Earthquake (Sound Archives reference) (duration: 29′00″)

Bay of Plenty Earthquake in 1987

Ten years after the event, Jack Perkins assembles a group of Edgecumbe residents to relive the experience, and trace its effects not only on the landscape but on their own lives. The result is a documentary which focuses on the immediate emotional and psychological responses to disaster, but also the legacy of its aftermath.
CDR 1084 Spectrum 954 (Sound Archives reference) (duration: 29′48″)

Fault Lines

A special feature about the residents of Canterbury, beginning at the moment when they were jolted awake at 4.35am on Saturday 4 September, and exploring what happened in the days and weeks which followed. The focus of the 50-minute programme is on the personal experiences of those affected.
(duration: 42′04″)

Broken River extended version

Days after the city of Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, This Way Up's presenter Simon Morton traverses the city using the Avon River as his route. Travelling on a bicycle from the source of the Avon in the West to Heathcote Estuary in the East, where the Avon meets the Pacific, everyone has a story to tell.
(duration: 43′45″)