That Island of South America

Geologic history shows that the Andean area was the only part of South America above water until the Andes rose up to their great height, which brought the eastern portion of the land up out of the water, and the Panama Isthmus up to connect Central and South America. The Glomar Challenger deep sea drilling rig confirmed this understanding when it showed that Panama, at one time in recent history, was not connected to South America. In addition, as many geologists now recognize, the Andes mountains rose suddenly, also in recent history.

The fact is, that the western strip, or Andean area, of South America—that land west of the Andes—has always been considered as separate and generally referred to as the Andean Plateau or just Peru. Consequently, the word Peru is generally used by archaeologists to include not only the modern Republic of Peru, but also the highlands of Bolivia and often the northernmost part of Chile as well, although some historians and scholars have also included all of Ecuador in this term and almost all of Chile, while still others include southern Colombia. This cultural area shared a common tradition of long duration and is often called by archaeologists the Central Andes. It extends westward from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean and from just above the equator to about 35º south latitude. Further south, the land does not offer an agreeable living climate.

It is the agreement of those who have traveled the Chilean coastal lands that this narrow fringe of western land hangs from the Andes Cordillera, second only to the Himalaya in height, like a gray balcony over the largest of oceans. The desert at the northern boundary with Peru, the natural frontier of the Andes with Bolivia and Argentina, and the sea in the west and south give Chile the psychological character of an island; which certainly fits the description given by Jacob and Nephi about their land of promise being an island (2 Nephi 10:20).

To the east of the amazing Andes Mountains lies the Amazon basin, which at one time was entirely underwater and even today, is rarely more than 14 feet above sea level, with much of it at or just below sea level. It is the largest river basin in the world, covering an area of about three million square miles, making it more than twice the size of the next largest river basin, with the river having eleven times the volume of the Mississippi.

The Amazon used to flow westward into the Pacific until the Andes Mountains rose up to block its westward flow, causing it to become a vast inland sea. As the eastern continent rose up out of the water, it became a massive swampy, freshwater lake and eventually a river outlet to the receding Atlantic Ocean, with a vast near-continent wide river basin about the size of the United States. This amazing river is as large as the next 8 world rivers combined, and the volume of water flowing from the basin into the sea is about 11% of all the water drained from the continents of the earth. The greatest flow occurs in July, and the least in November. While there are many rivers flowing through the basin, the most important and well known is the Amazon.

The width of the Amazon ranges from about one mile to as wide as six miles, and during flood season, as wide as twenty-two miles. However, the Amazon is only about 20 to 40 feet deep, and runs westward for 1000 miles, the river itself rising only 144 feet compared to the Mississippi, which drops 1475 feet. Geologists agree that in times past, this vast basin was submerged until the rising of the Andes, which brought this basin and the land surrounding it up out of the water to form the continent of South America as we see it today.

When taking all of this into consideration, it is not hard to visualize that the entire basin area east of the present-day Andes was once under water as Jacob said and Nephi recorded (2 Nephi 10:20).

(See the next post which shows how this “island” shaped the geography and development of the Nephites and Lamanites anciently, and the Inca in more modern times)