Secondly, when the mountains rose to great heights at the time of the crucifixion, we do not know exactly where that was in relation to the River Sidon; however, it is likely that all rivers that were once in the Land of Promise, after the rise of the Andes, were altered to some degree to then flow either west to the Pacific, or east to the Amazon (Brazil) and then to the Atlantic, or in a few cases, north to what is now the Caribbean.
In addition, rivers that once flowed into the East Sea before the Andes rose, could have been diverted with the rising of the mountains into high valleys forming lakes with no outlets, much like Titicaca. Or lakes with several outlets with minimal exchanges that do not reach the sea.
Comment: “3) The City of Moroni was by the East Sea (Alma 50:13). During the destruction of the Crucifixion, one of the cities that was sunk was Moroni (3 Nephi 8:9, 3 Nephi 9:4,7). Many cities were rebuilt, but the cities that were sunk could not be rebuilt because the water was still there. (4 Nephi 1:9) This means that they were not sunk by rain water, otherwise the water would have dissipated. They weren’t covered by a tsunami or the water would have receded back to the ocean and these cities wouldn’t have remained under water. The cities would have had to either fall into the ocean or the water of a large lake (that was big enough to be considered the sea) would have had to rise up to sink the cities (probably through some volcanic/tectonic event). Either way, the water was still there after the Crucifixion. How does this fit with your theory of the Andes rising up to displace the East Sea?”
Response: First of all, the Andes did not rise out of the East Sea, the Andes rose as a result of two tectonic plates slamming into one another, which is how mountains are formed (see the previous diagrams). In this case, very suddenly and very catastrophically as noted by all the damage. As the Andes came up, the water then known as the East Sea receded across the rising continental shelf as it was tipped to the east and drained into the Atlantic. In the Amazonian area (Brazil), that land did not rise that high and much of the water was trapped in various low areas across what is now the 2.7-million square mile Amazonian Drain Basin, which covers 40% of Brazil’s total geographical area, and floods during half of the year as more water is added from rains and snow melt in the Andes, that flows into the already saturated basin that is contained by the two large stable masses of Pre-Cambrian rock, the Guiana Shield or Highlands to the north, the Central Brazilian Shield or Plateau to the south, and the Andes Mountains to the west.
As the mountains rose suddenly, many water sources were trapped, later to run off toward the sea to the west, or to the east in the Amazonian River Flood Plain or into Patagonia. Geologists have drawn maps of these eastern seas and how they were altered when the continent titled upward from the tectonic subduction to its present form.
Charles Darwin, not my favorite source of anything, on his voyage of the Beagle to South America in 1834-35 (part of a voyage that lasted 6 years), confirms that Argentina indeed was completely inundated at one time, as also were Uruguay, Paraguay, and the southern half of Chile. One of his discoveries of this information was along the Atlantic coast of Patagonia (lower Argentina), where he found white beds of seashells including giant oyster shells measuring 12 inches in diameter along Blanco Bay in the areas of Punta Alta, Mount Hermosa and Fort Argentina in October 1832.
Darwin concluded that “the entire coast of Argentina from Rio Plata to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego had been underwater and raised in mass within the period of the seashells” he had found (Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, London, Dent & Sons, 1906, pp162-163). Later, the Beagle sailed up the Chilean coast where Darwin made a trip to the foot of the Andes near Valparaiso where he saw “great beds of shells which stand above the level of the sea and were burnt for lime, not too far from Santiago and 160 miles north of Talca, on beaches 1300 feet higher than the present beach, some embedded in a marine mud.” He wrote in his journal, “The proofs of the elevation of this whole line of coast are unequivocal” (Darwin, Beagle, p242).
After traveling through the Portillo pass to Mendoza, Argentina, he recorded that a few miles north of Mendoza “at an elevation of about seven thousand feet, I observed on a bare slope some snow-white projecting columns. These were petrified trees, eleven being silicified, and from thirty to forty converted into coarsely crystallized white calcerous spar…and required little geological practice to interpret the marvelous story which this scene at once unfolded.” At first, Darwin was so astonished that he could hardly believe his eyes. “I saw a spot where a cluster of fine trees once waved their branches on the shores of the Atlantic when that ocean, now driven back 700 miles, came to the foot of the Andes” (Darwin, Beagle, pp318-319).
Much like the Amazon Basin, during the rainy season, flooding occurs over the pampas for thousands of square miles, leaving in its wake vast swamps.
Emeritus Professor Gilbert James Butland of Australia, claims from his studies that “there is little doubt whatever that a considerable area of the plains of South America, between the Andes and the Brazilian plateau were geosynclinal,” an outdated term involving vertical crustal movement that has been replaced by plate tectonics. However, the fact that geosynclines develop along a passive margin of a continent and is found throughout southern South America also suggests that it was at one time underwater. As Butland adds, “although most of the Chaco is comparatively unknown, the general nature of the sediments consists of clays, sands, and mudstones for a considerable depth.” In fact, the eastward flowing rivers can be considered as the continuing deposition on a filled-up gulf (Butland, Department of Geography, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia).
As one can easily see, the central part of all of South America is almost completely flat, in many parts barely above sea level, and all shows geologic signs of once being underwater.
(See the next post, ”The Changes Found in 3 Nephi – Part III,” for the rest of the questions and answers, and a continuation of the last answer in the previous post)
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