Yup. A lot stronger.
It may be strange to say, but an earthquake at 5.8 might be a good thing...it doesn’t do a lot of damage, but relieves a lot of the stress and pent up energy on the fault.
That may mean a reduced chance of a much larger quake later.
Thoughts, anyone?
Not really, because for each magnitude 30 times more energy is released.
This area contains faults capable of generating quakes up to M 6.7; such a quake would release well over 30 times the energy of this quake; you'd need perhaps 50 of these quakes to release enough energy to prevent a large damaging quake. The numbers just don't add up.
In any populated area where building and roadway construction does not meet earthquake zone safety standards, where there is little to no emergency services planning and community wide earthquake preparation, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake has the potential of being a devastating earthquake, with extensive building destruction, bridge collapse and a significant loss of life.
Regarding earthquakes relieving stress: An earthquake can actually create more stress within the fault zone, especially upon either end of the fault as well as any nearby faults. Any stress reduction from today's thrust fault earthquake would be minuscule.
Static Stress Changes and the Triggering of Earthquakes
by Geoffrey C.P. King, Ross S. Stein, and Jian Lin
"To understand whether the 1992 M=7.4 Landers earthquake changed the proximity to failure on the San Andreas fault system, we examine the general problem of how one earthquake might trigger another...
< Snip >
...Further, we find that several moderate shocks raised the stress at the future Landers epicenter and along much of the Landers rupture zone by about a bar, advancing the Landers shock by 1-3 centuries. The Landers rupture, in turn, raised the stress at site of the future M=6.5 Big Bear aftershock site by 3 bars...
< Snip >
...Together the Landers and Big Bear earthquakes raised the stress along the San Bernardino segment of the southern San Andreas fault by 2-6 bars, hastening the next great earthquake there by about a decade."
Static Stress Changes and the Triggering of Earthquakes