[Strategerist]

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.

[rightinthemiddle]

Thanks for the info.

[Pagey]

"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".

I nominate this for Post Of The Day. You are entirely correct and I TOTALLY BUMP this post!