Questions That Have to be Answered About the Land of Promise – Part II

Continuing with the last post where the first four questions were asked and answered. The following begins with question 5:

Question 5: “Where would Lehi’s “seeds from Jerusalem” have grown in the Western Hemisphere in 600 B.C.?”

Answer: The seeds brought from Jerusalem had been grown and developed in what is called under the Köppen Climate Classification System, a Mediterranean Climate. In 600 B.C., before chemical and mineral nutrient fertilizers, soil enrichment, organic farming, crop rotation, seed selection, sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, biodiversity, horticulture, plant sampling, raised fields, contour planting, plant genetics, “three sisters” planting, plant compost plowing, use of natural pest predators, agronomy, hydroponics, aquaponics, monoculture, etc., etc., etc., seeds were rarely successfully grown in other than the same climates in which they were developed. When the Pilgrims landed in 1620 in Massachusetts, they nearly starved the first winter since their seeds from England and Holland would not grow in their new land—had local Indians not supplemented their food, there would have been no second year for their colony. Thus, a Mediterranean Climate would be needed for the “seeds from Jerusalem” to have survived, especially to provide abundant crops. The only two such climates in the entire Western Hemisphere are in central to Southern California and in central western Chile—the latter being where the Lehi Colony landed and spent their first few years until Lehi died.

Top: The five areas of Mediterranean Climates that exist outside the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea; Bottom: The Lehi Colony landed at Coquimbo Bay, Chile. This area, called La Serena opens into the Elqui Valley (shown above), all of which boasts of a Mediterranean Climate, and is the 10^th largest wine growing area in the world

Question 6: “Based upon Jacob’s statement in 2 Nephi 10:20, where would there have been an island in 600 B.C. for Lehi to land upon and where the Nephites were living?”

Answer: There are very few islands along the eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean, and none of a size for the Land of Promise. There are islands in the Caribbean, but again, none the size needed for the Land of Promise. However, at one time, the eastern portion of South America was underwater and Panama was not attached to Colombia, creating an island along the Andean plain as has been outlined in several earlier posts.

Question 7: “Where are the four seas mentioned in the scriptural record?”

Answer: Since the Land of Promise was an island, the four seas surrounded the island. The North Sea was the pass through between Central America and South America, the West Sea the Pacific Ocean, the East Sea the Atlantic Ocean, and the South Sea the pass between Cape Horn and Antarctic, today called the Straits of Magellan.

Question 8: “Where is there an island large enough for the Land of Promise that is oriented on a north-south plane?”

Answer: Again, the Andean plain along the west coastal area of South America, from around southern Colombia, to just beyond Coquimbo (30º South Latitude) in Chile. This land runs almost directly north and south.

Question 9: “Where are there plants and roots that could remove the cause of fevers and disease in the Land of Promise?”

Answer: Indigenous to the Andean area of South America and found nowhere else in the world during Book of Mormon times and for centuries afterward, is the cinchona tree, the only natural source of quinine, which not only is the only cure for malaria (fever), but also is a remedy for countless maladies. The Jesuits took seeds from the cinchona back to Europe in the 17th century where it became known as a miracle cure for numerous illnesses, disorders and diseases. Early in the 19^th century, the Peruvian government made it illegal to export the cinchona, but the seeds of cuttings were smuggled out of the country for new cultivation at cinchona plantations in colonial regions of tropical Asia by the English to British Raj and Ceylon (India and Sri Lanka), and by the Dutch to Java in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Despite malaria (fever) being known since before Roman times, and studied and tested for centuries, not until the cinchona was discovered in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia in the sixteenth century did the world find a cure for malaria—a cure the Quechua people of Peru and Bolivia had used for millennia.

Question 10: “Where is the land where volcanoes and earthquakes predominant where “the quaking of the whole earth” “such as never known in all the land” took place?” (3 Nephi 5,7,12)

Answer: The Pacific Rim, the coastal area along the east and west coasts of the Pacific Ocean, have long been the hotbed for volcanoes and earthquakes. However, the subduction zone of two techtonic plates along the west coast of South America has long been a center for such constant and devastating activity.

The Pacific Rim’s Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 25,000 mile horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes

The vast majority of volcanoes in the Western Hemisphere fall in the area of Colombia (15), Ecuador (21), Peru (16), Northern Chile/Bolivia (49) and Central Chile (33), a total of 134. In all of South America there are 203 overall.

Question 11: “Where is evidence of groanings and vibrations of the earth and their cause be found?”

Answer: Techtonic scientists have recently claimed that the noises elicited by the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the South American plate causes unusual surface sounds seldom heard from such deep sources, much like the earth itself is groaning and that the sounds vibrate throughout the northwestern coastal areas of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They also claim that these noises escalate from time to time as rough nobbings on the South American Plate are encountered by the subducting Pacific Plate. These strange sounds often precede and earthquake and while the general public consider the sounds anomalies, it in fact is the earth going through deep tectonic shifts as the magma moves according to the changes in our magnetosphere—and that around the northwestern area of South America has been noticeably evident on the surface.

(See the next post, “Questions That Have to be Answered About the Land of Promise – Part III,” for the continuation of these all-important questions)