Its magnitude was 6. However, the effects were not as severe as either of these, because the focal depth was 84 km. Deep events like this, being further from the earth's surface, cause less motion there. It was felt from Huntly in the north to Dunedin in the south, most strongly in Nelson and Blenheim where many shops had goods thrown from shelves and there were some instances of minor damage.
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In Wellington it caused a swaying motion which persisted for a long time, especially in tall buildings where the movement was noticeable for a minute or more. While this motion is disconcerting to those experiencing it, the tall slender buildings are behaving as they were designed to do, swaying and flexing instead of sustaining damage.
On 2 March there was an earthquake of magnitude 5. They were felt strongly in Hawke's Bay and as far afield as Wanganui and Wellington. These shocks appear to be part of a continuing series which began with two in , in February and May, which caused damage in Dannevirke and the nearby area. The series has continued since then, but mostly at a low level with only the occasional shock being felt. This series is somewhat unusual in its length, especially as the events were two years after the main shock.
The Seismological Observatory is continuing surveillance of the area with its permanent network of seismographs. Other shallow earthquakes of magnitude 5. All were felt sharply nearby, but not severely. Deep earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5. These earthquakes were all felt as slight jolts and vibrations, with no damage reported and none expected because of the focal depths.
The concentration of earthquakes in the first half of the year is interesting. There is little or no regularity in the way earthquakes occur, and while long term average rates have been established, the variation about these averages is quite substantial. This means that no particular significance can be attached to the quiet period we have been experiencing. It is true that periods of quiescence have been observed before large earthquakes, but this phenomenon is not well understood and it is the judgment of Seismological Observatory research staff that this current quiet period is simply an illustration of the sporadic nature of earthquakes.
Joan Wiffen, palaeontologist. These bones had been discovered by a geologist in the late s, but had never been subjected to scientific scrutiny. The Wiffens located the site in rocks 65 million years old. After initial finds of shells, ammonites, belemnites and other fossils, they extracted fragments of marine reptiles turtles and plesiosaurs and mosasaurs enormous prehistoric sea monsters shaped like crocodiles.
In , Wiffen discovered the claws of a large carnivorous terrestrial dinosaur, shaped like that of a Tyranosaurus rex, a theropod. A year later she found the vertebra of a theropod, and over the next eight years uncovered the fossilised bones of a second species of carnivorous theropod dinosaur and a range of herbivorous dinosaur species on which they fed.
In June Wiffen discovered a solid bone, believed to belong to a species of plant-eating sauropod. These were among the largest dinosaurs of all; some were tall enough to eat tree-tops and measured up to 28 metres in length. Plant fossil material, insects, and the bones of the flying reptiles, pterosaurs, have also been found. After the war's end, she worked in a Hastings radio shop, marrying five years later and having two children. When rock collecting became a family hobby, Wiffen's interest in geology grew and in she and her husband travelled to Queensland to look at rocks.
At a roadside stall Wiffen bought a fossil triblobite a small ancient sea dwelling animal like a slater and soon after was gifted an ammonite, an extinct snail. It was a fascination for these relics which led to her interest in the collection and study of fossils. Wiffen's New Zealand findings have important implications for theories of Continental Drift, and the belief that New Zealand separated from Gondwanaland about 80 million years ago, before dinosaurs spread.
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Although New Zealand's scientific establishment were slow to accept that dinosaurs lived in New Zealand, Wiffen's discoveries have now been identified by overseas experts and described in scientific papers published in New Zealand and internationally. Wiffen has published five scientific papers on marine fossils in New Zealand, and co-authored three others which have been published overseas.
She has also written a popular book on her fossil-hunting life, Valley of the Dragons , which has been broadcast on radio's National Programme and translated into braille. Figure 1. Storm, Moa Point, Wellington. It was very cold, with south-westerlies for much of the year.
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Easterlies prevailed from September. These, together with more frequent low pressure systems east of the North Island, produced especially cloudy weather over much of the North Island and northern South Island. The national average temperature of This was particularly noticeable after the — period which was very warm. Temperatures were 1. There were also more south-easterly airstreams over New Zealand, which always bring cooler conditions.
A blanket of snow covering farm machinery at Pukehiki Church, Dunedin. Winter snowstorms. Snow occurred in Otago and Canterbury on 9—11 May, then heavy snowfalls occurred in Otago and Southland for much of the week from 16 June which gave record low day and night time temperatures. More heavy snow occurred in Canterbury and inland Marlborough from 8—11 July.
Later, very cold south-easterlies brought the most severe snowstorms since along the east coast of the South Island from 27—29 August. Waitohora, Wairarapa measured rainfall totalling mm for the 48—hour period to 9 am on 23 July, with numerous slips and road closures throughout the region.
New Zealand's best known female weather presenter and reporter is Penelope Barr. Born in Paeroa in , Barr left school with no clear career path. Barr returned to New Zealand in , graduating with a teaching diploma two years later. Assisted by a scholarship, she also completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Waikato. In she was encouraged to enter the Miss Waikato beauty contest and took the tide, later being placed fourth in the Miss New Zealand competition. Barr moved to Auckland, working as a full time model on fashion shows and occasional compere.
She got her first taste of television in , when she acted as a co-host on Telequest and later had small parts in the television productions Gloss and Erebus. Barr first presented Television ONE's weather report in In she gained the internationally recognised New Zealand Diploma in Meteorology, becoming the first person outside the New Zealand Meteorological Service to achieve the qualification.
Weather presenter, Penelope Barr. When the air pressure is abnormally high in the Indonesian region, it is correspondingly low in the South Pacific and vice versa. When southern oscillation episodes occur, the usual weather patterns in the southern Pacific, including New Zealand, are significantly altered.
An index, called the southern oscillation index, has been constructed using pressure recordings from Tahiti and Darwin. The period of the southern oscillation is very irregular, varying between about two and 10 years with an average period of three to four years. Uniqueness is a feature of the natural life of New Zealand. Most notable is the absence—apart from two species of bat—of native land mammals. Many flightless birds and insects have evolved. The most remarkable birds were some 12 species of moa, forest and shrub browsers that took the place of large herbivores in other parts of the world.
Moa became extinct in pre-European times, but other flightless birds remain, including kiwi, kakapo a nocturnal parrot—the largest in the world , and weka a scavenging rail. Flightless insects are numerous, including many large beetles and cricket-like weta. The absence of mammals also meant that birds became important as seed-dispersing agents. As a result most forest plants bear small berries, including the giant conifers podo-carps , the smaller canopy trees, and even some forest-floor herbs. Some alpine plants produce berries, dispersed by the New Zealand pipit and the kea mountain parrot.
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As a consequence of the great physical and climatic upheavals which New Zealand has undergone the forest has been influenced by extinction. Coconut palms once occurred in New Zealand, and fossil remains of kauri, now limited to the northern North Island, have been found south to Canterbury. Some tropical plant groups are represented by a single species, surviving only on protected islands, or in the far north. Although many New Zealand plants and animals occupy very specialised habitats, droughts, high winds, floods, and erosion mean that many species need to be highly adaptable.
Accordingly, many insects, such as native bees, gather food from a wide variety of sources, and some forest species, like beech, regenerate best after the parent forest has been destroyed by volcanic eruption for example. The black stilt is one of New Zealand's rarest birds and the rarest wading bird in the world. It was widespread until the late 19th century when its numbers began to decline rapidly. By the s black stilts were left only in the South Canterbury—North Otago region and today there are only 70 to 80 birds in the wild.
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The black stilt Himantopus novaezealandiae is a large wading bird closely related to the common pied stilt. They are more compact than the pied variety and their plumage is a uniform glossy black colour. They favour dunes or the edges of swamps, lakes or rivers and build their nests on either dry shingle beds or swamps. They form breeding pain for life and lay about four eggs every year between September and December. The stilts have suffered mostly, along with many other species of native birds, from predation by introduced species.
Cats, stoats, ferrets, dogs and birds of prey, introduced to control rabbits in the last century, attack the eggs and chicks while they are at their most vulnerable.
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Agricultural and hydro-electric development have disrupted the stilt's favoured environments: lakes, rivers and wetlands. Although it is difficult to measure the precise effect this has had on the black stilt population, New Zealand has lost 90 percent of its wetlands since the first settlers arrived here. In power shortages caused by a lack of water in the South Island hydro-lakes led to a controversial decision to allow lower levels on Lake Pukaki, the major remaining breeding ground for black stilts.
No hard evidence could be produced to say what effect this would have on the birds but there was general agreement that it wouldn't do them any good. In the end power conservation measures averted the power crisis without the need to lower the lake. The Department of Conservation DoC is endeavouring to foster the black stilt population. Intensive management of their natural habitat among the braided rivers of South Canterbury began in Predators were trapped and eggs were discreetly taken from birds to be artificially incubated. The eggs were replaced with ceramic dummies and the chicks were returned to their parents once they were hatched.
Before DoC management measures were introduced the black stilt's egg survival rate was 1 percent but since they began it has risen to 35 percent.