[quote=paramount]Is an earthquake of magnitude 8.0+ even possible around Southern California?[/quote]
Probably not. All of the faults here (including the san andreas) are slip faults (transform plate boundaries). The quakes in japan, chile and indonesia were all caused by convergent subduction faults (convergent plate boundaries). They generate much larger earthquakes. There is a large subduction fault that runs from northern california past the PNW up into alaska that could generate an 8.0 quake however.
