So many different M4.0 - M5.0 earthquakes in the West Pacific, it becomes hard to see the map.. also several deep earthquakes striking in succession all around Fiji , Tonga, and even Indonesia.

All this movement is a precursor to larger activity which should strike in the near term (next several days, up to 1 week). The area to be struck with the large earthquake should be a nearby adjacent "silent" area which has not yet moved.

With all the activity around the region, there are only a few spots which stand out as still being "quiet" -- South Japan, West Indonesia, Himalayan Range (Nepal to Afghanistan), Mexico / Central America, Vancouver Island , Pacific Northwest United States, and the coast of Peru / Chile.

7 silent areas, plus at least two deep earthquake locations where movement should occur nearby.

Overall, this means the next 7 days should pan out to be more active than one might normally expect -- have a plan, and be prepared just in case things strike out to sea, or in populated areas.

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:

Singh said that CO levels were taken by an instrument onboard NASA’s Terra satellite — launched in 2009 — circling the earth in a polar orbit at a height of 705 km. The instrument measures CO concentrations at different heights and also computes the total amount of the gas in a vertical column of air above the earth surface.

Analysis of the satellite data showed a large peak in CO concentrations during January 19 and 20 — a week before the main earthquake event.On January 19, the total CO in the vertical column was also higher than usual. After the 26 January earthquake the concentration of the gas dropped.

According to the scientists, CO gas is forced out of the earth due to the build up of stress prior to the earthquake “influencing the hydrological regime around the epicentre.”

This particular bit of research appears to have had no confirmation or further comment in the sciences at this time. So the predictive usefulness of large CO spikes prior to earthquakes remains quite uncertain. And, as noted above, no major geological information outlet has made any warning or comment on earthquake risk so far. Thus the current very large West Coast CO spike near major fault lines remains a bit of a mystery.

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.nl/2016/02/an-explanation-of-carbon-monoxide.html