How Could the Continent of South America Have Been an Island During Nephite Times? – Part III

Continued from the previous post, regarding the mountain building in South America, and results of new scientific studies and findings, as well as the continuation of the two questions raised by a reader.

Repeating this map from the previous post, since it is referenced several times in this article

While we have previous indicated several geologic findings and studies relating to South America and the deformation of and mountain building of the Andes, at the same time we should keep in mind that before the Andes rose, there was an early Ordovician middle-crustal section in the proto-Andean margin of Western South America, called the Famatinian Orogeny, or Famatinian Belt. This orogeny involved metamorphism and deformation in the crest in the eruption and intrusion of magma along a Famatian magmatic arc that formed a chain of volcanoes (Pablo Diego González, et al., “Structure, Metamorphism and age of the Pampean-Famatinian Orogenies in the Western Sierra de San Luis, Report 15, Miguel J. Haller, ed., Argentine Geological Congress, Buenas Aires, April 2002). The igneous rocks of the Famatinian magmatic arc are of calc-alkaline character and include gabbros, tonalities and granodiorites, with the youngest igneous rocks of the arc being granites (Patricia Alvarado, et al., “Comparative Seismic and Petrographic Crustal study between the Western and Eastern Sierras Pampeanas Region,” Argentine Geological Association Magazine, vol.60, no.4, 2005, pp787-796).

A magmatic Arc is the molten rock material that originates under the Earth’s crust and forms igneous rock when it has cooled and solidifies. When it flows out onto the Earth’s surface as lava, it forms extrusive (volcanic) rock

Towards what is now the east of the Famatinian magmatic arc a sedimentary basin developed into a back-arc basin that went from Peru, through Bolivia to northwestern Argentina. The basin collected sediments from the Famatinian orogen and arc and while it did not contain oceanic crust it was a marine basin (Heinrich Bahlburg, et al., “The U-Pb and Hf isotope evidence of detrital zircons of the Ordovician Ollantaytambo Formation, southern Peru, and the Ordovician provenance and paleogeography of southern Peru and northern Bolivia" Journal of South American Earth Sciences, vol.32, no.4, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2011, pp196-209).
    As seen in the image above (and the previous post), the freshwater flux that made up the sea division between the Andean Uplift and the Guayana and Brazilian Shields, was a natural boundary condition for the salinity balance as applied to a primitive equation model of the oceanic general circulation. Instead of the relaxation condition or the virtual salt flux boundary conditions used in many existing models, the real freshwater flux across the upper surface is specified as the vertical velocity boundary condition for the continuity equation, and the salinity flux is set to identically zero at the sea surface. Numerical experiments show that a model with the natural boundary conditions runs smoothly.
    A lot of important physics involving the freshwater flux emerge from the new model of South America. The barotropic Goldsbrough–Stommel gyres, which combined with the wind-driven and thermally-driven circulation, determines the salinity distribution of the world oceans. Driven by the precipitation and evaporation, have replaced those that were excluded in the previous numerical models, and the results , reveal extremely complex structure of the three-dimensional circulation driven by the freshwater flux—that, once again, made up the seas perimeters within the continental area, filling the several basins within what is now South America. In fact, the Amazon drainage basin, which is 2.7 million square miles in size (The continental United States is 2.9 million square miles), makes up a very large singular basin which, submerged, provides the basis of the Plebasion, Paranense and Paranan seas of antiquity, now gone with the rise of the Amazon Basin when the eastern continental crust rose and uplifted the entire continental area when the Nazca and Antarctic plates were shoved suddenly into and subducted beneath the South American Plate at the time of the crucifixion, when “the whole face of the land was changed” (3 Nephi 8:12)—that is, the subducting of plates forced up the above plate, crumbling folds of earth and pushing them upward, while other spaces sunk into voids created by the buckling earth, and mountains fell while others rose.

This is exactly what Samuel the Lamanite described that would take place as stood atop the temple wall preaching to the Nephites in Zarahemla (Helaman 14:23).
    Of course, mainstream science does not believe that is when any of this happened, attributing it to millions upon millions of years of slow-moving crustal and plate movement and buildup; however, at the time “there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward…[and] a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth” (3 Nephi 8:11-12), is when the mountains rose. As Samuel the Lamanite prophesied, “there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great” (Helaman 14:23).
    In addition, according to Moses, who received his information through the dictation of the Lord of Genesis, i.e., the history of the world before and after the Flood period to the time of Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 50)—the earth was divided during Peleg’s time (Genesis 10:25), which was four generations after Noah. This division, that is, the breakup of one overall land mass into the numerous presently existing continents, took place during Peleg’s life, which was 239 years (Genesis 11:16-19). It is extremely difficult for mainstream science to except, let alone understand such actions taken by the Lord. However, he dictated the information to Moses, and it seems wise to take his word for it. However, this is not a matter of saying “the Lord can do anything,” which, of course, He can; but this is a matter of stating what the Bible world history in Genesis states—neither adding to, or lessening, the import or factual statements made.
    In addition, as far as the water flux outlined in the image above, a relatively small amount of freshwater flux drives very strong meridional and zonal cells and baroclinic gyres, which are 100 times stronger than the driving freshwater flux. Most importantly, the model provides an accurate description of the meridional salt fluxes and their roles in setting up the thermohaline circulation. It is suggested that, with or without the rigid-lid approximation, the real freshwater flux can be used as the upper boundary condition in oceanic general circulation models, including the mixed-layer models, the ice–ocean coupling models, and atmosphere–ocean coupling models (Rui Xin Huang, Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, American Meteorological Society Journal, November 1, 1993).
    “Today, 93 percent of freshwater drainage off South America runs into the Atlantic, with.   South America's drainage pattern having been shaped by its persistent Guyana and Brazilian continental shields, the emerging Andes along its western and northern margins, the fluctuating foreland basin east of the Andes, and several structural arches” (John G. Lundberg, et al., “The Stage for Neotropical Fish Diversification: A History of Tropical American Rivers,” Phylogeny and Classification of Neotropical Fishes, Part 1 - Fossils and Geological Evidence, L.R. Malabarba et al., Editors, Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1998).
    All of this gives us insight into when and how the continent of South America was once an island, i.e., the Andean uplift of the western shore and inland regions now that run between the shore and the Andes mountains, where Lehi landed, i.e., at the Coquimbo Bay  near the present city of La Serena in central Chile, and how the island became a full continent millions of times larger than the original island shelf.

Overthrust Mountains 1) A hypothetical block of the Earth's crust in the region of Glacier National Park as it existed more than 60 million years ago; The two layers shown actually represent many strata of sedimentary rocks; 2) Lateral pressure begins to force the rock layers to buckle; 3) A large fold has been created, forcing the rock strata to double over and overturning some layers. A break, or fault, is forming at the plane of greatest stress; 4) The break has been completed and the strata west of the fault have slid eastward, up and over the rocks east of the fault; 5) The Glacier landscape today

That mainstream science will never accept these events happening during the time of man is understandable, considering their undying commitment to, and investment in, the theory of evolution and the geologic column, as well as the dating age of current rocks found in various areas of the world. However, as we have written before, the Earth was not created ex nihilo, that is “created out of nothing,” but ex matria, that is “creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter.” Thus, though the material is eternal, it has different ages based upon previous use, such as in previously destroyed planets, worlds, etc. That is why the ages vary in the dating of earth rocks because they were formed and molded in the temporal world at various times during the many creations and changes throughout God’s time.
    The point is there is no disagreement about the Andean Uplift, the tilting of the eastern shelf and the lifting of the Amazon Basin among geologists generally, the major problem lies in the time frame in which these events took place. While geology is based around the Geologic Time Scale and Evolutionary era of a 4.55-billion-year-old Earth, the fact of the matter is that we have God’s word that 1) the Earth is very young (which was verified by Libby’s initial test with his C-14 Time Clock); 2) The Noachian Flood occurred in 2344 BC; 3) In Peleg’s time 4 generations later, the earth was divided; 4) In the Book of Mormon, the Land of Promise was initially an island; and 5) At the time of the crucifixion mountains rose in the Land of Promise to a great height.