Questions I Would Like to Ask – Part XIX

Using strictly the scriptures, I would like to ask the following questions of those many Theorists who claim their pet theories about the location of the Land of Promise are consistent with the scriptural record.
    This nineteenth question is a follow-up question to #18, which is found in the last post, and is also directed to Phyllis Carol Olive and her Great Lakes Theory as well as Rod L. Meldrum and his Heartland Theory.
    The question to ask is quite simple and strictly scripturally based:
    19. “Where are the volcanoes throughout the Land Southward and the Land Northward that erupted during the crucifixion of the Savior in the Land of Promise and spewed out smoke, vapor, gasses, and dust that caused a thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness” (3 Nephi 8:20).

In South America, from Colombia to Chile, there are at least 137 volcanoes in the Andean Volcanic Belt; 19 in Colombia, 55 in Ecuador, 62 in Peru and Chile. There are no recent volcanic structures in the U.S. east of the Mississippi, but there were several ancient volcanic structures in the eastern U.S. dating back millions of years, especially in Virginia, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and in eastern Vermont and Maine.
    First, as for volcanoes, the eastern United States is relatively free from such geology, with a few exceptions. Mole Hill in Virginia’s east coast where some volcanic rock and magma has been found dating to a much earlier date than 200 million years ago when geologists claim Pangaea slowly pulled apart into North America, Africa and South America. However, Virginia is a long way from western New York and the Heartland.
    Second, in the Land of Promise, after the quaking, there descended “a thick darkness upon all the face of the land and the people could feel the vapor of darkness (3 Nephi 8:20), which is called ”astonishingly thick air” by Spinden and Sieberg, and Knop claims “reduces visibility to a few feet and makes breathing a nightmare.”
    Third, this vapor is described and interpreted as being the smoke and gasses consistent with volcanoes erupting, and according to John Lear (Saturday Review Nov 5 1966,) was responsible for quenching all lamps during the 1400 B.C. destruction of the Greek Island Thera (now called Santorini).

A progression of pictures showing (top) Mount St. Helen’s eruption May 18, 1980. Note the top picture with its cloud, debris and ash covering everything but the top after everything settled. Also, the middle pics show a distance shot with the smoke and debris covering the miles in between, so thick that buildings could hardly be seen from across the street. Bottom also shows the effect of the smoke, debris and white ash almost impenetrable on the streets of nearby Yakima (50 miles away), which was dark at 3:00 pm
    Fourth, the explosion and eruption of Mt. St. Helen’s in 1980 points out the effect of a single volcano eruption, which sent clouds of black smoke and ash 80,000 feet into the atmosphere that lasted about ten hours (with lateral force at 300 mph), and the explosion of steam, ash and rock debris heard hundreds of miles away, which deposited fallout all across eastern Washington and ten other states. Dark skies, black clouds, ash, dust, stream and hot gasses (mostly sulfureted hydrogen gas) covered the area.

The grey area shows the spread of the fallout from Mt. St. Helen’s eruption covering eleven states
    Fifth, a recorded eruption of the Conseguina volcano in Nicaragua in 1835 gives us some insight into the terror and destruction that resulted from the powerful disaster at the time of Christ’s crucifixion, when a dense cloud first rose above the mountain cone, and within a couple of hours “it enveloped everything in the greatest darkness, so that the nearest objects were imperceptible.” Unable to see, wild animals plunged into settlements, quakes described as a “perpetual undulation” followed, and then volcanic ash began to fall, like “fine powdered flour.” All the while thunder and lightening continued the entire night and following day. The period of darkness and tremors lasted for a reported forty-three hours.
    Sixth, another example, this one from the snow-covered symmetrical stratovolcano called Cotopaxi, in Ecuador, where 86 known eruptions in historical times makes this one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes. The first recorded eruption was in 1534, several in the 18^th century, and during the 19^th century the town of Latacunga was leveled twice. Its eruptions often produce pyroclastic flows and destructive mud flows (lahars), some of which have travelled more than 62 miles and reached the Pacific to the west and the Amazon Basin to the east. One of the largest eruptions of Cotopaxi in historic times was on July 3, 1880, in which it was reported “an inky black dust cloud of ash rose from the crater straight up to a height of 20,000 feet in less than a minute, and then spread out with the wind.”

The column continued to rise for more than an hour, and the dust, estimated at no less than two million tons, was distributed over hundreds of square miles. The British explorer Edward Whymper was climbing Chimborazo at the time of the eruption and was at 15,800 feet when he reported extremely vivid and strange light and color effects when the large ash plume drifted over him: "... several hours passed before the ash commenced to intervene between the sun and ourselves; and, when it did so, we witnessed effects which simply amazed us. We saw a green sun…no words can convey the faintest idea of the impressive appearance of these strange colors in the sky, seen one minute and gone the next, resembling nothing to which they can be properly compared, and surpassing in vivid intensity the wildest effects of the most gorgeous sunsets."
    Seventh, history has borne out the fact that the descriptions given by Nephi of the terrible destruction and events at the time of the Savior’s crucifixion were very real and with obvious precedent. Inky black darkness filled the sky, thick, heavy air snuffed out all light and fire, and lightening and thunder continued for days as a result of volcanic eruptions.
    So we ask again, “Where are the volcanoes throughout the Land Southward and the Land Northward that erupted during the crucifixion of the Savior in the Land of Promise and spewed out smoke, vapor, gasses, and dust that caused a thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness” (3 Nephi 8:20).