Friday, October 10, 2008

NAPIER ITSELF !


Having clearly established who Napier is named for- what about the place itself?

Famous for its earthquake and art deco.
I don't think you can be so quickly transported to the 1930s, anywhere else.



Art Deco was only in fashion for 20 years and it just happened to coincide with an earthquake and the rebuilding of Napier city, in art deco style, at that time.






The earthquake responsible was in 1931, lasted 2.5 minutes, registered as 7.8 on the Richter scale and caused 150 aftershocks and massive fires.




525 people died as a result.




The land itself tilted upwards, by 7 feet (just over 2 meters), and 5575 acres, that were under the sea, were raised to sea level.



Since then, the area has continued to creep up at the rate of 1cm per year, so that it is now two feet above sea level.

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