Don't call it a sinkhole.

The cracks and fissures and crevices forming out at Paseo del Mar are officially - and more accurately - all part of what could be a major landslide in progress, according to city and county officials who also have labeled the event "life-threatening."

Officials this week continue to scramble in an effort to lessen whatever damage could occur by rerouting storm drains and moving power poles. An 8-foot-tall, permanent chain-link fence is going up around the affected site to make sure no one gets hurt.

"It's not a sinkhole, it's definitely a landslide," said Doane Liu, who is heading up the 15th District staff while the City Council position is vacant. "It's moving so quickly that we had an all-hands meeting last Thursday in the Mayor's Office.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spokesman Peter Sanders said Monday that the land is continuing to move at a steady pace.

"It's highly unstable," Sanders said.

With the rainy season already started, officials worry about the possibility of a large-scale slide.

"The most important thing to know is it's dangerous to walk in that area," Liu said. "There are all kinds of safety and, let's face it, liability issues. There are crevices where someone could fall 20 or 30 feet underground. ... It's an emergency."

The new fence - which replaces a temporary chain-link fence put up by county workers - should be in place by the end of this

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week, when work also will be finished on rerouting county storm drains.

The fence also will go through a section of the White Point Nature Preserve, where orange plastic netting has not been enough to keep people out of the area that also is considered risky.

Sections of pipe were spotted bobbing in the ocean below on Sunday.

"From my backyard I can look directly across where the road has collapsed," said Robert Day, who lives on the ocean-side of the cliff just east of the affected area. He said he called a city engineer to report the pipes but that "he didn't offer much insight."

While officials believe the cause of the land shift is a natural geological failure, nothing has been ruled out Sanders said.

Residents remain suspicious that a leaky pipe - or irrigation of the White Point Nature Preserve - may have precipitated the slide.

Meanwhile, Liu said the city has identified funding for a geological study from a pot of money that was to be used for Paseo del Mar repairs that now aren't needed.

There's little that can be done to prevent the slippage, Liu said, and city and county crews continue to do all they can to prevent problems should more of the earth collapse.

No homes are directly threatened at this time - the landslide appears to be in a crescent shape where there are no structures - but residents in adjacent neighborhoods have expressed concern.

Day said a section of cliff near his home tumbled off the edge about a year ago. He said geologists at the time attributed it to the heavy 2009-10 rains.

"Why aren't they allocating funds (now) to monitor exactly what's going on?" Day asked.

Sanders said bids are set to go out this week - "we're moving as fast as bureaucracy can move" - for an independent survey, but the work itself could take six months.

"The geological