Small earthquakes are a good thing, not a bad thing. They relieve stress on the fault without having a major slippage. I think.

The stress-relief model makes sense to me, but apparently it doesn't work that way:

https://www.sfgate.com/earthquakes/article/do-minor-quakes-p...

It does, and the article affirms this. However it's a question of relative magnitude. The energy dissipated by the smaller quakes is dwarfed in comparison to larger quakes. The energy of a 5.5 quake is on the order of 1/1000th the energy of a mag 7 quake.

I guess things didn't end up working that way today. Or maybe the 6.4 prevented the 7.1 from being even stronger :(

It was felt all the way out to the west coast (which is where the big fault line is). To answer your question, only time will tell.

I was only a few miles away in San Gabriel and did not feel a thing; I wonder if the SGV blocked any of the waves.

Wish I had come to campus early today to feel that one.

For anyone wondering, SGV refers to the San Gabriel Valley. (Correct me if I got it wrong.)

You got it right! (Though Pasadena is also in the SGV.)

I felt it in South Pasadena, but it was very gentle; would have been easy to miss if I hadn’t been sitting still when it happened.

Apparently, mountains buffer the waves. SGV is bordered by a San Gabriel mountain range. So, your experience sounds reasonable to me.

I'm in the mountains in San Bernadino (Lake Arrowhead / Big Bear) and I felt it pretty good. Shook the door to the bathroom. Thought my wife was being impatient.