'The Big One': California on verge of mega-quake

San Andreas fault

A new "structure" has been discovered in the San Andreas Fault that could produce the feared "Big One," a massive earthquake of magnitude 8 or greater in Southern California, according to researchers.

A geological study published in the journal Lithosphere provided details of a 15- to 20-mile-long stretch of the San Andreas fault's southern tip, at the bottom of the Salton Sea, that could trigger a cascade of earthquakes that lead to a mega-quake.

The structure has been named the "Durmid Ladder" by Utah State University researchers because of its appearance -- two master faults connected by hundreds of smaller, perpendicular rung-like faults.

"We now have critical evidence about the possible nucleation site of the next major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault,"said USU geologist Susanne Janecke in a statement.

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Researchers at Arizona State University believe there is a 75 percent chance a mega-quake of magnitude 7 or greater will occur in California sometime over the next 30 years.

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An article in the the journal Nature Geoscience recently found that a phenomenon called "slow earthquakes," or slow-slip events, along the San Andreas Fault, could trigger more destructive quakes.

Janecke was joined in the Durmid Ladder study by Daniel Markowski, James Evans, Patricia Persaud and Miles Kenney.