CO2 is so last year. Now it's Carbon Monoxide's turn to freak us out.

[GliderGuider]

Carbon Monoxide Spikes to 40,000 Parts Per Billion over California on February 26 — What the Heck is Going On?

On February 26, The Global Forecast System model recorded an intense and wide-ranging carbon monoxide (CO) spike over the US West Coast. A region stretching from British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon, and on over most of California experienced CO readings ranging from about 5,000 parts per billion over the mountains of Southwestern Canada to as high as 40,000 parts per billion over Southern California. Very high peak readings appear to have occurred from Northern California near Eureka and the southern edge of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and along a line south and eastward over much of Central California to an extreme peak zone just north and west of Los Angeles near Palmdale along the San Andreas Fault Line.

For reference, these readings were between 50 and 265 times above typical background CO levels of about 150 parts per billion and up to twelve times higher than second highest peak readings over polluted regions of China during the same period.

Human-based carbon monoxide sources are not generally known to produce spike readings so high and so wide-ranging. Nor are wildfires (of which there were no reports for this region). The primary suspect for this preliminary observation, therefore, is geological. As the spike occurs over large fault lines, volcanoes, and above other active geological features along the US and Canadian West, it appears that activity within these features may have produced a brief if intense burp of this gas. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) readings — another geological gas — were also elevated, with peak readings again appearing in Southwestern California.

It’s worth noting that no major US or Canadian geological organization has yet made any report on this particularly large CO spike. However, a piece of scientific research in Nature Asia, by K. S. Jayaraman notes that major CO and SO2 spikes may be an indication that future earthquake activity is on the way. According to Nature this kind of intense CO spike occurred prior to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Gujara in 2001 killing 20,000 people.

Something to keep an eye on. The CO plume appears to be coming out along the entire fault line from San Diego to Vancouver, and is being blown east by the prevailing winds. Could be a possible signal of a major tectonic event?

http://earth.nullschool.net/#2016/02/27/0300Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-101.00,39.59,1150

[mackdaddy]

1. "According to Nature this kind of intense CO spike occurred prior to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake"

"According to Nature this kind of intense CO spike occurred prior to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Gujara (India) in 2001 killing 20,000 people."

This is at least, really out of the ordinary. We will see if this is as serious as it looks, or may be a precursor to help predict future earthquakes.

[Ghost Dog]

2. So this is a possible earthquake precursor: next 24-72hrs.

Gujarat Jan 2001:

"Massive amounts of CO were released from the ground 4–6 days before the M7.6 Gujarat earthquake of January 26, 2001 in Northwest India, enough to be detected in spectrally resolved daytime and night-time images of the MOPITT sensor onboard the NASA TERRA satellite [37]. - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223176372_Satellite_Detection_of_Carbon_Monoxide_Emission_Prior_to_the_Gujarat_Earthquake_of_26_January_2001

US West Coast Now:

Starting February 25th... the current spike appears over an interval of three hours in the Nullschool data — going from zero coverage to covering all of California and parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and BC over that single short interval. - http://robertscribbler.com/2016/02/29/carbon-monoxide-spikes-to-34000-parts-per-billion-over-california-on-february-26-what-the-heck-is-going-on/

GD

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Current conditions

That just can’t be good…

( Made with: http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-115.95,33.04,1053 )

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883292710000338