Friday, November 30, 2018

IF WE STAY IGNORANT ABOUT AMERICA, OUR CHILDREN WILL SUFFER

Chuck Pierce Prophesies: If We Stay Ignorant About America, Our Children Will Suffer

While the spiritual war for America's soul rages, God is speaking to His prophets. His heart is to equip us—if we'll listen. I wrote about this spiritual struggle in my newsletter yesterday, where I shared the first part of "The Spiritual Struggle for the Soul of America," the cover story I wrote for Charisma's November issue.

The article is long and in-depth—which is part of the reason I broke it up into three parts to share with you. But that's also the very reason I think you'll enjoy it. Today, I want to share with you Part 2 of that article, where I unpack the prophecies God has given about Trump and the direction of our country. The following is taken from Charisma's November cover story:

In God and Donald Trump, I quote respected prophet Chuck Pierce, who said as early as 2008 that God would raise up Donald Trump. At his annual Head of the Year 5779 conference this September, Pierce told a crowd of thousands that there is a spiritual battle in America.

"Hosea the prophet says this: 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,'" Pierce said. "'Because you rejected knowledge, I also reject you from being priests. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I forget your children.' We have to understand that we are in a precarious place as a nation. What it says is, 'If you remain ignorant about what is going on in your nation, I will have to reject your children. It might not affect you, but it will affect your children.' So I think what we saw God do recently, a couple of years ago, was say[ing], 'I really love this nation, and I'm going to start taking control of it, and redoing it, and getting it ready for the future.'"

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Pierce is not known to "be political." He prays. He flew to Israel to intercede on Election Day 2016 after he felt directed by the Lord to do so. During the George W. Bush administration, he and Dutch Sheets traveled to all 50 states to stir up believers to pray for this nation, which I also reported in my book.

During that tour, Pierce felt the Lord tell him the next president would be an African-American who would have two terms. Even though some of his friends didn't like that word, he reminded them that, as Christians, we are called to pray for authority.

"With prophets, we are called to say what will be," Pierce says. "I don't have a choice to be political and be Republican or Democrat. I have to choose to say, 'This must happen or else your children will be lost.' What we have heard here is a message saying God's hand has come down in America. Realign the nation covenantally with God's nation called Israel. This is so key for us to get as we move forward. And now hear me prophetically: within three years, it is lost. I will go beyond what John Kilpatrick was saying. Without this shifting by February of next year, fully into place to get secure, in three years, this is lost."

There is no mistaking the emotion or the intensity of those who were crying out for change. In the Christian community, millions were praying. Large gatherings such as TheCall, led by my friend Lou Engle, were not protesting anything but were publicly interceding for America and its need for revival.

But prayer went beyond the huge gatherings; churches and individuals also prayed. My longtime friend Monica Nagy began a daily prayer phone call, which has gone on every day from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. EST since the inauguration. She calls it "Praying Believers" and tells people the purpose is to "pray for our president and nation—decreeing and declaring that America will once again become one nation under God." Prayer warriors from all over the country join the daily call, which is under the leadership of Pastor Dana Gammill, senior pastor of Cathedral of Life Church in Canton, Ohio. And although Nagy began her call after the inauguration, my friends Dr. Don and Mary Colbert started a daily conference call leading up to the election that included thousands or prayer warriors.

I believe in the power of prayer. While many would discount the value of prayer meetings like this, I have no doubt that Donald Trump's election was an answer to Christians' prayers.

At an Orlando meeting in August, Kenneth Copeland said the nation is in the mess it's in because too often, Christians did nothing. As far back as prayer and the Bible being taken out of schools in the early 1960s, Christians did nothing. The country has been sliding toward socialism, he says, and Donald Trump is working to keep out socialism. In spite of the criticism Trump seems to get from many circles, Copeland assured his partners that Trump is a good man who speaks for the common man.

Though Copeland initially supported Ted Cruz, Copeland was invited to meet with Trump, where he laid hands on the future president and prayed God would give him wisdom. That prayer must have made an impression on Trump, because when he held a state dinner to honor evangelical leaders, he invited Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and reportedly told them he enjoyed watching their program.

I believe Donald Trump was raised up by God at this pivotal time in our history. There were political expressions of the changing mood of the country. But I believe something was happening spiritually. Christians were praying for things to change, and the New York real estate tycoon was actually an answer to prayer. Nothing quite like it had ever happened.

Documenting this is why I wrote God and Donald Trump. None of the books about the election or Trump even touched on the spiritual aspects. Yet isn't the unseen spiritual realm really the most important? As Benjamin Franklin reminded the Continental Congress when it looked like the U.S. Constitution would not be ratified, doesn't God get involved in the affairs of man?

I did more than 100 media interviews in conjunction with God and Donald Trump—most on Christian media, but some in secular media. In most of them, I talked about the supernatural if I could work it in. For example, I brought up prophecy, something which makes no sense to not only secular people but also some Protestants. I recounted how several modern-day prophets had predicted that, against all odds, Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States. This had happened as far back as 2007, and it's something I documented in the book. Months before the election, I wrote about the prophetic voices in this magazine and online.

Those prophecies may have sounded ridiculous or impossible to some people, but Trump was elected, just as the prophets had said. The prophecies were one reason I had enough confidence to fly to New York for the election-night party. I know it seems crazy, but somehow, some way, God intervened in that election and saved us from "corrupt Hillary" becoming president.

When I was interviewed about the book, secular television reporters asked me how evangelicals could bring themselves to vote for a man so flawed. I found myself saying that millions of Christians were praying that somehow God would shift the direction in which this nation is headed. I said God answered our prayers in a way we didn't expect with a person we didn't necessarily like. But once Trump began to implement his policies, we were sure we had made the right choice.

As I've already mentioned, I didn't support Trump initially for the same reason some evangelicals still don't support him: His lifestyle and brash behavior were not what Christians want from their national leaders. As I've said on many occasions, I publicly endorsed Ted Cruz and supported him until the day he dropped out. By then, I had become aware of the comparisons between Donald Trump and the pagan Persian king Cyrus the Great, who let the Israelites return from captivity to Jerusalem. If God could use Cyrus (and many other imperfect leaders in the Bible), why should I question him using someone as imperfect as Donald Trump?

During an interview on CBN's 700 Club on June 21, 2018, Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham's daughter and Franklin Graham's sister, agreed.

"I know we have issues with the way he expresses himself," Lotz said. "But his policies have been stunningly supportive of biblical values. Right now, he has my applause and my prayers ... because I think he's in a very dangerous place. You can feel the enemy trying to tear him to shreds, including his policies that have taken a stand on biblical values."

Addressing the apparent lack of faith in the younger generation, Lotz said she felt that part of the problem is that "Christian parents have not passed on the truth that leads to faith to their children. Maybe we left it up to the churches or to the professionals, and we didn't do it ourselves. But something is disconnected because, instead of the nation getting better, we've gotten worse. We've gotten farther away from God's Word. And it could be that, in response to what my father did, talking about spiritual warfare, [the devil has] just come in like a flood to try to undo any impact from my father's ministry or other people's ministries or the church. But we know in the end that we'll be triumphant."

The information from this article largely comes from my latest book, Trump Aftershock. In the book, I share the untold story of Trump's many accomplishments, which I believe God is using to point our nation in the right direction. You can buy the book at trumpaftershock.com and download a free chapter called "America at War With Itself."

If what Chuck Pierce, Kenneth Copeland and Anne Graham Lotz said in this article resonated with you, be sure to listen to my podcast below and read tomorrow's newsletter, where I share Part 3.

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/74204-chuck-pierce-prophesies-if-we-stay-ignorant-about-america-our-children-will-suffer

MULTIPLE SINGS, WONDERS CONFIRM GREAT MOVE OF GOD IN OHIO

Pastors pose with police car with national motto for Clergy Appreciation Month in 2017.

The Bible is coming to life beyond belief in the heartland of the Buckeye state. Clergymen from Richland County, Ohio, are reclaiming the nexus between church and state and proving they are the juggernaut that can bring social change to their region.

Like night and day, this former "belt buckle of the Rust Belt" is now on the brink of becoming a new loop of the Bible Belt.

This report supplies ample evidence of pastors working in tandem, making an eternal difference in culture. This account also documents tangible blessings that followed hand in hand after biblical obedience. One of the most profound instances of this divine momentum includes a timely signature clergy collaboration calling for resistance to a federal government which hit below the belt.

Local Clergy 'Johnny on the Spot'

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Bountiful August rains in the midst of a five-month drought in 2016 came at just the right time. This rainfall had a ripple effect, bringing an unusual abundance of milk and honey, and propelling a robust harvest. Despite being the second hottest August on record, milk productivity countywide increased 43 percent from the previous August. Meanwhile, swarms abounded for a bee population still stinging from the colony collapse disorder, with one prominent beekeeper declaring the summer of 2016 as "the best bee season in a decade."

"Showers of blessing" became new buzzwords to come out of a sticky situation. In spite of the drought, one farmer exclaimed "In 74 years of farming, I have never had 80 bushels of soybeans an acre like I did in 2016!" Another farmer proudly boasted of having five cuts of hay that year. ... but that's not all.

This extraordinary turn of events occurred one month after clergy drew national attention for challenging the Washington, D.C., establishment. Leading clergymen from over 100 congregations across Richland County sent a letter to local and state school officials calling for civil disobedience to the Obama restroom mandate.

Citing the mandate jeopardized privacy and safety of women and children, these ministers took a bold stand when many were afraid to challenge a hostile federal government. Interestingly, 50 years prior, the county seat of Mansfield drew headlines addressing the same issue of public restroom safety when the city permanently closed down and buried underground public restrooms on the city square to stop lewd behavior.

This same month also saw a sudden exodus of witchcraft with two out of the three area psychic stores closing. Legislative efforts to attack religious freedoms were also averted. And despite an infant mortality rate nearly twice the national average, no cases of premature infant deaths were recorded. Last but not least, the clergy's milestone moment saw no traffic fatalities during the same summer vacation month.

According to the ancient promises described in Deuteronomy 28, simple obedience by pastors became a pivot point to set these wheels of blessing in motion; one act of faith can change a nation.

Repealing the Clergy Gag Order

When addressing public issues of morality, clergy have the right of way. Second Chronicles 26 shows Azariah the high priest and 80 other courageous priests confronting the prideful King Uzziah when he challenged biblical authority. In this case, taking the moral high ground did not involve neutrality, it involved championing truth by confronting authority.

Christ regularly confronted politicians. Lively debates are recorded between Christ and the Sanhedrin over issues like paying taxes, food requirements, health care on the Sabbath and commerce inside the temple. Consequently, when Moses confronted Pharaoh over slavery, their confrontation impacted the agriculture, public health, transportation and weather patterns of a national superpower. These encounters became defining moments.

It goes to show, you don't have to change everything for everything to change.

Walking in Faith Leads to Charters of Faith

Throughout recent times, Richland County clergy have taken well-timed biblical stands that have helped define the faith community while simultaneously providing a mechanism to hold community leaders accountable.

After the U.S. Supreme Court redefined marriage in 2015, leading clergymen from 66 congregations publicly called Richland County to a day of prayer and fasting. The clergy statement defined immorality scripturally, took ownership over the community's sins and also cited two redemptive case studies of community turnarounds that ensued after each society repented.

That following year, eight of the nine mayors throughout the county gave pornography awareness proclamations. Also, police shut down a human trafficking brothel in response to a crime tip given by 14 area pastors. Just one month after clergy sparked this investigation, another brothel by the same name was closed in Lancaster, Ohio.

Alluding to this crime tip by the clergy, the Mansfield Police Chief in 2018 stated: "We have had unprecedented church involvement for several years. They have been very supportive and have helped uplift the community and helped get involved in solving crime ... they have done great things."

This is a powerful statement, reinforced by the fact that Mansfield has had three consecutive years of declining crime. Consequently, in 2017, several law enforcement agencies have placarded "In God We Trust" on all their squad vehicles, a stark contrast to one generation earlier when area law enforcement were enlisting the services of a California psychic to solve crime.

But psychics didn't see this coming when farmers had the best winter wheat crop recorded in 47 years after 36 pastors in January 2016 sent a written warning to a local business against hosting a psychic reading. The clergy made it crystal clear that psychic reading can involve consumer fraud of unsuspecting persons and could hold the business liable to litigation. The warning was given the same time the area began experiencing a five-month long housing upswing where the average number of days a property is on the market dramatically dropped and average sales prices went thru the roof.

In response, local veteran realtors stated that the turnaround was "unheard of," and that they had never seen a real estate market like it before. Suddenly, properties in Richland County became sought after and no longer forsaken, not bad for a county that led the state in foreclosures the previous two years. As a result of the upswing, the clerk of courts one year later commented that "foreclosures are down significantly. It's a huge drop, and I'm not completely sure why."

While New Age benefited from abandoned buildings as haunts, clergy are taking ownership of their community, and the future is becoming more certain: no man's land is becoming promised land.

Speaking of sorcery, police found marijuana growing on a church roof 30 years ago; but in 2017, clergy led a grassroots effort against local legalization efforts, with 70 pastors sending a policy letter to local government calling for prohibition of medical marijuana. The City of Mansfield and several villages and townships followed the clergy's lead prohibiting the dispensing and cultivation of the drug, due to its adverse health effects, affiliation with crime and inevitable illegal diversion. In fact, the director of economic development pointed to the clergy letter as the "death note" that killed a nearby Ontario City marijuana facility proposal.

Pastors became the talk of the town in 2016 when policymakers were actively considering a local syringe exchange program. Subsequently, a letter written five years prior by 72 area clergy opposing donations to a syringe exchange injected fear and closed the matter from going any further.

This same year the clergy opposed needle exchanges, seven pastors armed with drug treatment ministries confronted the County Fair Board, calling for the cancellation of a fair beer garden. The clergy caused a stir in the community, demonstrating that the beer garden did not meet its revenue goals and brought a bottleneck to security. The very same night the pastors presented their concerns to the board, a mysterious fireball was spotted and made landfall inside county limits. Five government agencies responded to the explosive scene, but the incident remains an enigma. For the pastors, these trailblazers that night became the stewards of the mysteries of God. No coincidence.

No Such Word as 'Coincidence' in Hebrew

In January 2017, clergy from over 100 congregations in north central Ohio sent an apology letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the position the Obama administration took in not blocking United Nations Resolution 2334. This anti-Semitic resolution called Israel's sovereignty of the promised land "an international crime."

Ten days after the apology letter was sent by the Ohio clergymen, a massive natural-gas pipeline was approved for construction thru north central Ohio after the project was held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Rover Pipeline Project is more than twice the size of the controversial Keystone Pipeline. With its approval, the 713-mile pipeline brought an economic rebound, with hundreds of thousands of dollars to the stagnated local economy at a time when energy projects often go contested.

According to Department of Agriculture numbers, the spring turkey harvest in Richland County saw a dramatic increase from the prior year, whitetail deer harvested was the best in four years and the cow herd in Richland County, which is estimated in late winter, was measured at its largest size in over 30 years, which is utterly amazing.

The astounding blessings the area experienced from the apology letter aftermath provoked 42 area clergymen to also request the county treasurer to invest taxpayer dollars in Israeli bonds.

The day the county treasurer announced the county government would invest nearly $200,000 in Israeli bonds, was the same meeting that half a million dollars in unexpected revenue was announced to alleviate a budget shortfall. This clergy apology letter had a snowball effect and sends shivers down your spine to think that the blessing of Abraham still impacts our generation.

Almost half a year after these astounding blessings made international news, the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset visited north central Ohio in the autumn of 2018 to thank the area for its support of the Zion state. The visit provoked one Israeli journalist to write an article entitled: "Does Rural Ohio Lead the World in Love of Israel?"

For what it's worth, according to media reports, a loud unexplained boom was heard over Richland County the same day the local newspaper first published the story on the Israeli-clergy apology letter. Power Company officials and emergency responders were scratching their heads trying to determine the source of this strange phenomenon. In retrospect, some say it was the voice of the Lord thundering His approval when the news first broke. I call it God restoring thunder back to the pulpit.

Reverend El Akuchie is coordinator of the Richland Community Prayer Network, founded in 1998 and based in Mansfield, Ohio.

3 WAYS CHRISTIANS MUST RESPOND TO AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL WAR

Dr. James Dobson: 3 Ways Christians Must Respond to America's Spiritual War

It's easy to recognize the intense spiritual war going on in the U.S. right now. It shows up in our politics, our media, our classrooms and even our families. And as believers, we can't afford to ignore it.

In Charisma's November cover story, titled "The Spiritual Struggle for the Soul of America," I write about this war and how believers must respond if we want to see our nation choose a righteous path again. I believe the insights I share in that article will bless you, but since the article is so long and in-depth, I split it into three parts. In my last two Strang Reports (Part 1 and Part 2 of the article), I wrote about John Kilpatrick's prophetic word about Jezebel warring against Trump and Chuck Pierce's prophetic exhortation to align with God's will for this nation.

Today I want to share with you the final part of my print article, in which I share Dr. James Dobson's take on our culture's spiritual war. Dr. Dobson, founder of Family Talk Radio, is widely respected, so I was grateful to interview him for my latest book, Trump Aftershock. He says the solution to the culture war is spiritual.

"Most of the contentious issues that divide us are rooted in Scripture and theology," Dobson says. "Those of us on the conservative side aren't dealing with mere differences of opinion. We are trying to live by standards that are eternal and 'God-breathed.' Those principles are not negotiable. We must, however, defend them within the context of love for our fellow human beings. That is a given for followers of Jesus Christ. Our task is to defend our beliefs without insulting or wounding those with whom we disagree."

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America stands again at a precipice. God is leading us to make better choices, just as He did with Israel. Moses and his people continued to wander in their comfortable, desolate wilderness and missed God's direction.

Here's what you can do now:

Get involved. Speak up to friends and family. Complain when media or others espouse principles that violate Judeo-Christian beliefs. Get your pastor to mobilize your church to be involved. Join other interceptors. There are many groups. I recommend POTUS Shield, created by pastor Frank Amedia, which sends out prayer alerts if you text 13131 and in the message type "PotusShield." You can also call 641-715-0715 every weekday from 8-8:30 a.m. EST to pray with Monica Nagy. (Use the code: 436372#.) There's also an affiliated Facebook page called "Praying Believers."
Vote and become a Christian values activist. Remember that James said, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20b). Kenneth Copeland reminds us we're in the mess we're in because Christians did nothing for too long. Support godly candidates when you can. Support officials who respect our values and oppose those who don't.
Last but not least, pray. Intercede and pull down spiritual darkness. Books like John Eckhardt's Prayers That Rout Demons help you know how. The unbelievers can't. Nominal and liberal Christians won't. So it's left to those empowered by the Spirit of God, whose eyes have been opened to spiritual darkness, to stand in the gap for this nation.

So what's the answer? I believe peace and harmony as a people will only be achieved if another Great Awakening-type revival sweeps America in a spirit of repentance and commitment. Will this occur in light of waning church attendance and a generation of Millennials who seem less interested in matters of faith than their grandparents and other forebears? I don't know.

Revivals happened in earlier times, including the great Azusa Street Revival, the forerunner to the charismatic movement. Can it happen again? This should be our prayer for America and the world.

That would be the ultimate spiritual aftershock.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from my article in Charisma magazine, click here to buy that issue, and be sure to listen to my podcast below. You can also read more about what God is doing in America and through President Donald Trump in Trump Aftershock. You can buy the book now at trumpaftershock.com.

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/74210-dr-james-dobson-3-ways-christians-must-respond-to-america-s-spiritual-war

PASTOR PROPHESIES: 'AMERICA IS AT A TIPPING POINT'

Pastor Prophesies: 'America Is at a Tipping Point'

"What is God speaking to you about the future of America?" TV host Jim Bakker asks Pastor Carl Gallups.

Perhaps many other American Christians are wondering the same thing.

"I think America is at a tipping point," Gallups responds. "I think we are very close to losing what we all knew was America. I don't want to lose that for my children and my grandchildren."

But Gallups insists that this tipping point is not just a flesh-and-blood, political issue. He says it's "deeply spiritual."

Watch the video to learn more.

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HOW TO RECEIVE DIVINE INSIGHT BY PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

How to Receive Divine Insight by Praying in the Spirit

Praying in the Spirit activates the grace of God to pray perfect prayers in any situation. These prayers go beyond our own agendas and beyond our rational understanding. When we pray in the Spirit, divine insight enlightens our hearts so we can hit the mark when we pray.

Praying in the Spirit With Eager Expectation

The book of Jude has only one chapter, but it is full of revelation and divine insight about praying in the Spirit:

"But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God while you are waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which leads to eternal life" (Jude 20-21).

The wording catches my attention: "waiting anxiously." That does not contradict the Scriptures about casting your anxieties upon the Lord (see 1 Pet. 5:7. See also Phil. 4:6; Matt. 6:25-34).

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"Waiting anxiously" means waiting with expectation, hardly being able to contain your eagerness. Praying in the Spirit releases a supernatural atmosphere and enables you to walk continuously in the love of God.

Another interesting fact about this passage is that it says you are supposed to build yourself up. You cannot wait for others to do so, and you cannot wait for God to make it happen.

Every one of us ebbs in our faith, but we can also grow in it. Even when we feel too low to figure out how to pray, we can pray in the Spirit.

The Spirit Himself will always help us:

"Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27).

It is true. We do not know how to pray as we should. We need fresh manna. We need to drop our agendas in favor of the Lord's. If we want to know what is on His heart, one of the easiest ways to open the way is to pray in the Spirit.

The gift of tongues brings rest for the weary and refreshing peace. Indeed, "For with stammering lips and foreign tongue He will speak to this people" (Isa. 28:11). And His unsurpassed peace quiets our spirits, which creates a perfect incubation environment for more revelation.

Let's seek divine insight purposefully by praying in the Spirit.

Let the Hand of God Come Upon You

In Hebrew there is a word for "hand" that refers to the burden of the Lord: massa.

This word refers specifically to the way the Lord's presence comes upon you and imparts something so that even when His hand lifts, the burden remains.

This is how prophetic intercession works—divine insight comes to inform powerful prayers.

Here is what James the apostle wrote about the burden of prayer in his epistle:

Never put limits on what God can do, even through an ordinary person like you!

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/74109-how-to-receive-divine-insight-by-praying-in-the-spirit

'TRUMP MIGHT NOT FINISH HIS TERM IN OFFICE'

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin says that for the first time, he thinks 'Trump might not finish his term in office'

November 29, 2018

"You know, today's the first day I actually thought Donald Trump might not finish his term in office," CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told Anderson Cooper Thursday night, after a week of revelations about the Trump campaign and Russia.

"Really?" Cooper asked. "I mean, I think this thing is enormous," Toobin said. He laid out a series of "preposterous" positions now being staked by President Trump, including that lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen negotiated Trump Organization deals in Russia for six months without telling Trump, that Trump and Roger Stone never discussed WikiLeaks, and that Don Jr. never talked to his father about the Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin-linked Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

"All of these are complementary to each other, and all of the stories that Trump is telling about them are preposterous," Toobin said. "And when you combine them all, the question becomes: When do Republicans start to turn on Trump? Because that's the only thing that's going to get Trump out of office, it's not going to be Democrats. And it's certainly not now, but there may be a point where it's too much."

Democratic strategist Paul Begala said he's "not there yet" on believing Trump won't finish out his term, because Trump needs to keep only 34 senators on his side and House Democrats say they won't impeach Trump unless Republicans ask them to.

At the same time, he added, "I do worry, honestly, for our country that the president, this president, is too distracted, is too obsessed," and is "having a presidential panic attack" over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

When he worked for Bill Clinton during the Whitewater investigation, Begala said, Clinton "found the work therapeutic, he would lose himself in the work."

Toobin also spells out the motive Cohen's plea deal reveals for Trump to make nice with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and you can watch that below. Peter Weber

STRANGE SEISMIC WAVES RIPPLE EARTH MAGMA SHIFT?

STRANGE SEISMIC WAVES RIPPLE EARTH
MAGMA SHIFT?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/earthquake-seismic-waves-mayotte-madagascar-volcanic-activity-science-a8659236.html

Just before 9.30am on Sunday 11 November, a series of unusual seismic pulses rippled around the world almost undetected.

The waves rang for over 20 minutes, emanating about 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte - a tiny island in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Africa.

From here, they reverberated across Africa, setting off geological sensors in Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

They crossed the Atlantic, and were picked up in Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and even Hawaii nearly 11,000 miles away, the National Geographic reports.

Despite their huge range, the waves were apparently not felt by anybody. However, one person monitoring the US Geological Survey’s live stream of seismogram displays did notice the unusual waveform and posted it to Twitter, sparking the interest of other geologists and earthquake enthusiasts.

Twitter user @matarikipax posted the waveforms, describing it in the first instance as “a most odd and unusual seismic signal”.

It was not only the power of the seismic waves which puzzled scientists when they began to examine the readings, but also the curiously regular shape of the waveform.

The bizarre waveform is what scientists call “monochromatic”. Earthquakes normally produce waves of so many different frequencies, the wave readings appear more jumbled.

But the mystery waveform from Mayotte was a crisp zigzag, which repeated after steady 17-second intervals.

“They're too nice. They're too perfect to be nature,” joked the University of Glasgow’s Helen Robinson, who is study for a PhD in applied volcanology.

Speaking to the National Geographic, she added the location of the island means industrial sources for the unusual wave - such as oil drilling or from wind farms - could be ruled out.

Founder of UK Earthquake Bulletin (UKEQ) Jamie Gurney, who was among those who began looking at the waveform, saying on Twitter he had “no idea if a similar global signal of this nature has ever been observed”.

So what could cause these regular slow waves? Could it have been a meteor strike? An illegal weapons test? Previously undiscovered sea monsters?

Mayotte lies between Tanzania and Madagascar (Google)

Despite the mystery, scientists do have clues as to the cause of the seismic event.

Mayotte, an inhabited French island, was formed as a result of volcanic eruptions around 4,000 years ago, but since then, the area has largely remained volcanically inactive.

However, since May last year, the island nation has been rocked by hundreds of earthquakes, all of which have emanated offshore and the largest of which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. The island is believed to be moving about two inches southeast each year.

But in recent months, seismic activity has declined, and on the 11 November, no traditional quakes were detected.

According to the National Geographic, analysis by the French Geological Survey suggests the new activity may point to huge movements of magma beneath the earth’s crust, miles offshore and under thousands of feet of water.

Large movements of liquid rock, or reverberations through the magma chamber can cause waves similar to those measured in this instance.

GPS measurements of Mayotte’s slow movements indicate a magma body measuring about a third of a cubic mile is pushing through the subsurface, and this could be the source of the weird waves.

“I don't think I've seen anything like it,” Göran Ekström, a seismologist at Columbia University who specialises in unusual earthquakes, told the magazine.

“It doesn't mean that, in the end, the cause of them is that exotic.”

Another theory is that an underwater volcanic eruption occurred, which would have been capable of producing the waveforms, however no evidence of such an event has yet been seen - satellite images are not believed to have recorded the formation of a “pumice raft” typically seen after a submarine eruption.

Regarding the uniform 17-second waveform, scientists currently estimate the resonance from the magma body could be being sonically filtered by the unique and complicated tectonic geography of the area, only allowing certain frequencies to escape the immediate environment.

While the definitive cause and the conditions in the area remain unknown, the French Geological Survey is planning to undertake ocean bottom surveys to obtain detailed information about this little-explored region, as well as investigating the possibility of a submarine eruption.