[sammyg2]

Sometimes small quakes relieve tension, but they can also increase tension on an adjacent fault.
'Spose a bunch of smaller side faults crack and slip, that could increase the tension on a major fault and lead up to the big one. Think they call them fore-shocks.

Lots of really smart people work their whole lives to figure this stuff out but there are just too many variables and scenarios.

my son is planning to go to Cal Tech one of these days, he was originally talking about astrophysics but he talked to a professor named Lucy up there and she's got him seriously thinking about going into the quake biz for the USGS.
I told him to get ready for a lifetime of hard work and frustration ..........