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THE MURCHISON SHAKE

ASTOUNDING JUMBLE

COUNTRY.PROSPECTED

STILL UNSETTLED

So great was the disturbance to the mountainous country in north-west Nelson caused by the disastrous Murchison earthquake of June, -1929, that after nearly five years it,has not yet settled down properly, and severe tremors, heralded by a rumbling,-rending sound and ending in a'violent jolt, are still common there..

Mr. George Lawn, of Canterbury College,: who visited ' this jumbled-up country between Mount Owen' in the Upper Buller and the Karamea with a prospecting party recently, remarked to a "Press" reporter on the continuance of these tremors. He added that only by visiting this region was it possible to.realise what .astonishing damage a violent earthquake could do. Mr. Lawn went - with two friends—l both of them: experienced ; gold-pros-pectors—who wanted-to reach a creek at the head of: the Mokihinui River, approaching from the Owen. They planned to spend three weeks there, and each carried a 501b pack, with, food for the period, blankets, a light tent, and prospecting tools. ' EARTH TREMORS FELT. At the foot of Trent Peak, where they camped for the first night, Mr. Lawn had his first reminder that the country had not yet properly settled, even though it was so long since the earthquake. During the night he heard a peculiar rumble, the sound seeming to approach up the valley. It grew louder and louder, and when it seemed to be centred about the camp (where the three men were sleeping on the ground) a violent double jolt was. felt. This happened twice during the night. Tho next day they climbed Trent Peak, and Mr. Lawn was astonishedat the extent: of the earthquake damage revealed; ■•: Anyone going down the Buller towards Murchison gained . some idea of it, but nowhere could such a view of it be obtained as from Trent Peak, for an observer thero was looking right down- the lino of maximum damage—the Owen fault: There for scores of miles along a north-cast to south-west line miles wide the. country had been tossed about in a manner that Mr.:- Lawn ■ could only say •; was: indescribable. There ' were places whore for miles the whole hillside had been sheared off as with a knife. All the trees, all the soil, and a large part of tho rock had simply been broken right off and tipped into tho valley below. The result was that down in the valley -was a jumble of rocks and broken trees, with little lakes behind the dams created. AN AMAZING DISPLAY. "It was an amazing and terrific display of earthquake damage," said Mr. Lawn. "It: was not that there were a few isolated .slips, but that whole groat hillsides—the slopes, of small mountains—were cleared completely of vegetation. Wo' fbund an old track very useful in ;getting through the country, but it was in a terrible state, for tho earthquake had tossed great rocks and tree.truriks.across.it, and much of it had been carried-away. "Generally we had to keep to the tops, and here we found trouble in getting sufficient water—again because of the earthquake. : The earthquake had so broken up the country that the small streams'in the upper, parts of their beds' had disappeared into crevices.' We had to drink water from dirty wallow holes-rdisguisirig'the taste by boiling soup tablets with it." Apparently Trent Peak itself was not affected. l>y' the; earthquake, probably because it was. formed .''of tho ancient rock which acted.as a-buffer to the rest. Rocks there which had been precariously balanced for years were still in position. For their second last night thc~ party camped under an overhanging cliff, but having, seen what an earthquake could do,, none of the men felt easy about'it, and .they were fully prepared to make hastily for the open. DIFFICULT COUNTRY. From Trent, Peak the three ' men worked back towards the West Coast and the Mokihinui, and after they had been out five, days they, reached a point where they could' see their objective, but a dense fog came down and heavy rain set in, and as the country was so difficult that it was impossible to travel in it unless tho tops could be seen,-they had to turn back. Many deer, keas, kakas, and native pigeons were seen, but Mr. Lawn, and his friends were particularly interested in the area aa a field for' prospecting.. In tho early days there was a gold rush to the Mokihinui, while the Matiri and Owen rivers ■ were also gold-bearing. The area, he considered, offered a field, for gold seekers that was attractive to the real prospector, though the country* was rough to get into and difficult to work. The clearing away resulting from the oarthquake might possibly make available new. ground for prospectors. .

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19340226.2.94

Bibliographic details

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 48, 26 February 1934, Page 10

Word Count
782

THE MURCHISON SHAKE Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 48, 26 February 1934, Page 10

THE MURCHISON SHAKE Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 48, 26 February 1934, Page 10

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