I-Mac crash with vertical lines down the screen

My i-Mac is about 4 years old, running OS-X version 10.8.2.
About 2 weeks ago my system suddenly crashed and the whole screen was filled with vertical lines - alternate blue and white.
Yesterday the same thing happened, except that the vertical lines were alternate red and white.
Both times I turned the desktop off, left it for a minute or two, and then turned it back on again. The system then booted up normally and I was able to access all my applications as normal.
To date my i-Mac has been very reliable but I am a bit worried that this 'crash' problem has now occurred twice. I have kept the operating system up-to-date and am running OS-X 10.8.2.
Could anyone please tell me why this problem is occuring and how I can fix it?
Thanks in anticipation.

Thanks for your help.
I have a 24" i-Mac (bought new in 2009), do your comments still apply?'
What do you think could have caused the card to develop this fault? (Currently only internmittent, but it presumably will get worse)?
I will back up my files and go and see my local Apple Store as you suggested, but do you have any idea how much replacing the graphics card on my 24" machine would cost??

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