The big shake: What we've learned since Monday's deadly 7.8 earthquake

• The earthquake struck at 12.02am on Monday. It was initially given a 6.6 magnitude, then upgraded to 7.5 before it was again upgraded, on Wednesday, to 7.8.

• Geonet have described the quake as "complex" and said it appeared multiple northeast South Island faults had ruptured, including the Kekerengu, Hope and Hundalee faults, and a newly identified fault at Waipapa Bay.

• The quakes triggered a tsunami warning for large parts of coastal New Zealand, before all warnings were eventually lifted at 3pm on Monday. Tsunami wave heights of 2.5m were recorded in Kaikoura, while Christchurch's wave height reached 1mand Wellington recorded 50cm.

• There had been 2812 aftershocks since the quake by 2.30pm Friday, including three over magnitude six. Many aftershocks have occurred north of the epicentre, along some of the many faultlines that riddle the east coast of the upper South Island. The biggest aftershock - a 6.3 magnitude jolt - struck 30km north of Cheviot on Monday afternoon.

• Two people died in the earthquake. Kaikoura man Louis Edgar was killed when his longtime home, The Elms Homestead, collapsed in the quake. His wife, Pam, and 100-year-old mother, Margaret, were pulled from the rubble. The other person to die was 55-year-old mum-of-two Jo-Anne Mackinnon. She died during the shaking at her log cabin home at Mt Lyford, north of Waiau. Her partner, Gary Morton, said he had been told it would be two months until Mackinnon's cause of death was known.

• Dozens of Wellington buildings were closed in the days following the quake, as concerns grew that some could be at risk of collapse in an aftershock. This included newer buildings such as Statistics House and the headquarters of the New Zealand Defence Force. Some residents were also evacuated from neighbouring buildings. Many buildings had reopened by yesterday, but the Government has launched an investigation into the earthquake performance of the city's buildings.