Californians wary of the San Andreas Fault now have another fault line to worry about: the Salton Trough Fault. Scientists discovered the fault line, which runs parallel to the San Andreas, along the "eastern edge" of the Salton Sea, ABC10 reported. Finding new faults is "fairly rare," especially in areas as well-examined as the region in California, but because the Salton Trough Fault is underwater it was more difficult to spot, Time reported.
The finding was published this week in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, as fears of the impending "Big One" — a massive hypothetical earthquake anticipated along the San Andreas Fault — continue to fester. After a recent spate of some 200 small earthquakes in Southern California, seismologists have been wary the San Andreas may be next to move.
Scientists do not think the Salton Trough Fault is connected to those quakes, however. Researchers say they will need to determine exactly where and how long the fault is before they can know how much it may increase the risk of earthquakes.