The Island of Chile

According to Jacob, and as recorded by Nephi, both prophets, the Land of Promise was an island (2 Nephi 10:20). There are four main issues to consider in describing Chile, Peru and Ecuador (the Andes) as an island.

First, the fact that Panama did not always connect Central and South America; Second, the Andes mountains were not formed until what geologists call the Jurassic Period, or the third great Cordilleran formation period; third, the lowlands of Brazil, Argentina and most of South America east of the Andes were once under water; fourth, the early conquerors found antiquity only in the Andes in all South America; and fifth, Columbus believed the area of Venezuela to have been a brand new continent, undiscovered and unoccupied.

Panama: Geologists say that in the early period of the earth's formation, there was a natural channel connecting the two oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific. According to Dodd, Panama later knotted itself together by some gigantic effort, and the upheaval left the lowest point of the Continental Divide (Panama) 276 feet above sea level. Drilling work form the “Glomar Challenger,” deep-ocean drilling vessel, on both sides of Panama has confirmed this.

Andes Mountains: Mormon claims that a Nephite could walk from the west sea to the east sea in a day and a half (Alma 22:32). This would suggest that the land was comparatively flat at that time. So what of the Andes Mountains which rise to heights of 10,000 to 16,000 feet generally, and have peaks of over 23,000 feet? According to Carpenter, geologists claim that at one time the Andes Mountains were a flat plain, and that they were thrown up out of the sea at the west like a cork in recent times.

Brazilian Plateau: Geologists have determined that the Amazon Valley was originally a wide straight waterway joining the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. South America then consisted of two divisions, the highlands of Venezuela and the Guianas at the north, and another great island at the south. Carpenter says that when the Andes were thrown up, the bottom of the Amazon Valley was raised, the waters of the ocean rolled back, and the great plain of Brazil and most of South America east of the Andes was formed.

Argentina Submerged: Charles Darwin crossed the Andes through the Portillo Pass in March, 1835, from Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina, and back. The round trip took 24 days and during that time he became convinced that Argentina had been submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean in very recent times. He saw fossil seashells as high as 14,000 feet, as well as petrified coastal trees on the Argentina slope and became convinced that the Andes had been upheaved in mass from sea level. He identified these coastal trees as once being on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, then 700 miles distant to the east.

According to Innes: In 1531, Francisco Pizarro set sail from Panama with three ships, 180 men and 27 horses, arms, ammunition and stores. He sailed down the west coast of South America. When these early Spanish conquistadors explored South America, they found very little east of the Andes. They saw a few headhunters in the Amazon forests and a few nomad wanderers in Argentina, but found antiquity only in the Andes, from Chile, through Peru to Ecuador. Even today, there is a complete lack of any sign of ancient civilizations in Argentina and Brazil. Not only do the Andes Mountains provide a formidable deterrent to eastern descent, but for most of the building time of the Nephites and their brethren's descendants, that area was under water.

Columbus: When Christopher Columbus arrived on his third voyage to the New World, according to Morison, he sailed from Trinidad Island across the gulf of Paria to the south coast of the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela. Columbus went ashore with some of his men and described the area in his journal as a very great continent, which until that day, he believed, had been unknown, suggesting it was relatively new in geologic terms.