As a massive clean-up continued following the tremor that claimed two lives early Monday, scientists were coming to grips with the "astonishing" scale of the seismic seizure. GeoNet said the quake ruptured at least four faults and was "clearly... one of the most complex earthquakes that has ever been observed". The current probability of quakes of magnitude 6.0 and above hitting in the next month was "about 100 times larger than what we would normally expect", it said. A convoy of New Zealand military vehicles also reached the town by land for the first time, travelling via a back road after huge landslides cut the main highway and rail lines. The tremor was felt across the country, causing violent shaking in Wellington about 250 kilometres (155 miles) away.

Source: The Nation Bangkok November 18, 2016 05:59 UTC