Tiwanaku and Titicaca’s 4000-foot Leap – Part IV

Continued from the previous post, covering the massive, high-altitude Lake Titicaca and the adjacent ruins of Tiwanaku, and the value of ancient myths, legends, and traditions. In the last post, it was discussed how a questionable source provided information to the author Karl Brugger, and in The Chronicle of Akokar, outlined a history that has some semblance to the Book of Mormon storyline regarding the destruction in 3 Nephi; but also the counter-argument found in The Self Made Chief, suggesting the source was a fraud. Our concern with this is not in whether either source is correct or in error, but in the actual descriptions included in a so-called ancient record. After all, ancient legends are generally based on something.
Consequently, we feel it might be of interest to consider just one of the paragraphs of the Akakor Chronicle, or at least the alleged chief’s statement, and consider its possible meaning: 
• “In the year zero, 
    The Ugha Mongulala, tribe began their dating following the great cataclysm of destruction that occurred in their land. The Nephites began their dating since the arrival of the Savior, which occurred immediately following the catastrophe that struck the land at the time of the crucifixion. 
• “the Former Masters left, but before they left there was some kind of "War between the Gods."
    The wars between the Nephites and Lamanites that proceeded the destruction found in 3 Nephi.

This war was horrible and devastating

    The Lamanite-Nephites wars were so horrible and devastating that both Mormon and later Moroni refused to describe them because of their horrid effects.
• “Afterwards, the Former Masters left 
Slightly out of sequence, but the resurrected Lord, after spending a few remarkable and noteworthy days with the surviving Nephites, bid them farewell. 
• “a global catastrophe ensued. 
    The global incident was like the destruction that occurred in the Land of Promise, which was even worse in the Land Northward.
(Image A – The final Lamanite civil wars among the tribes spelled disaster for the Lamanites for a long, extended period according to Moroni, who recorded that there was no “end in sight” of the war 
• “The Ugha Mongulala and the surrounding tribes 
    After the destruction of the Nephites at Cumorah a long period of destruction among the Lamanites followed, with tribe against tribe. 
• “lapsed into 6,000 years of barbarism.” 
    The civil wars among the Lamanites was recorded by Moroni, who wrote: “the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war” (Mormon 8:8).
    All of this is not to claim that this Ugha Mongulala tradition as Karl Brugger claimed to have recorded, means anything in connection with the Book of Mormon; however, like the legend of the Peruvian “four brothers,” it bears considerable similarity to the occurrences recorded in the scriptural record. One might wonder if such a legend existed, at least in part, among some native tribe(s) to suggest such a legend once existed among an ancient people in that region of South America. 
    After all, such an upswelling of mountains as as described in the scriptural record would certainly have been as violent as the Ugha Mongulala tradition, and such would never have been forgotten by the inhabitants of the time. Take, for example, the Washo Indians of California who say their ancestors witnessed the uplifting of the North American Sierras from the plains. Or that various other tribes of the Americas likewise recalling in their oral histories the memory of new mountains being raised and others flattened (Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision, Doubleday & Co, New York, 1950, p102).
    Consequently, it is difficult to deny that such took place. Especially when we have seen this happen in our own lifetimes (providing you are over the age of 14). That is, in this modern era, land has elevated over 4000-feet in a matter of minutes. And to help satisfy skeptics of mountains rising in a short period of time, it should be noted that a subduction earthquake, with a Richter magnitude of 9.3, occurred on December 26, 2004, off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, at 7:59 a.m. local time. Extensive seismic damage to engineering infrastructure occurred in northern and north-western Sumatra.

In 2004, a large slippage took place at the junction of the India Plate and the Burma "Microplate" some 155-miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh in northernmost Sumatra, raising the sea floor about between 3955 and 3763 feet in about three minutes

The earthquake occurred due to the rupturing of the subduction zone between the Indian plate and the Burma microplate. The Indian plate had been moving northeast, subducting under the overriding Burma microplate. The focal point was at a depth of 18½ miles and the ruptured fault length was estimated to be 808 miles. The rupturing initiated near the south end and progressed towards north gradually, taking approximately 500 to 600 seconds.
    Vertical uplift reportedly ranged between 23 to 33 feet at the ocean floor, displacing a huge amount of water that led to the tsunami, which occurred as displaced massive volumes of water uplifted, with the effects being felt as far away as Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya along the east coast of Africa. The casualties were in excess of 310,000, and millions of people were affected, many losing their homes. Of lesser note, but important in its own right, was the fact that during the earthquake, the sea bottom in the Straits of Malacca uplifted almost 4,000 feet in only about 3 minutes.  
    The US-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes spy satellite imagery and produces maps and charts for the Defense Department, was reported to have received information that one area of the Straits of Malacca, which separates Malaysia from the Indonesian island of Sumatra had its depth cut from 4,060 feet to 105 feet. In another affected area, a merchant marine ship logged that the depth was cut from 3,855 feet to just 92 feet. (Star newspaper, Kuala Lumpur, January. 13, 2005, quoting a report in the shipping journal Portsworld). The US Navy reportedly sent two ships to re-chart the waters. Sonar images from British navy ship HMS Scott showed the massive uplift of a large area 6 ½ miles wide and up to 4,921 feet higher. That is, both U.S. Navy, U.K. Navy, the Defense Department and Intelligence Agency all reported a rise of the sea floor upward almost 5000 feet (nearly one mile).
    Obviously, land can rise or sink quickly, even in our day. It does not require a very slow period covering millions of years as geologists and scientist claim, and have inclusively brought into the public conscience over the past century and a half. However, though time frames are stated in different terms, it is known today that “the chemical signatures in shale, the Earth's most common sedimentary rock, point to an ancient rapid rise of land above the ocean.” According to Ilya Binderman, a geologist at the University of Oregon: “Researchers read the chemical history in rocks [and] the emergence of the new land happened abruptly, in parallel with large-scale changes in mantle dynamics.” While some mountain building took place early, she states that the final heights we find today were caused suddenly: “the emergence of the new land happened abruptly, in parallel with the large-scale changes in mantle dynamics” Ilya N. Bindeman, et al., “Rapid emergence of subaerial landmasses,” Nature, May 2018; Vol.557, No.7706, Springer, UK, p545).

It might be of note that a new island is rising out of the sea along the outer banks of North Carolina, just off the Cape Point near Hatteras. Nicknamed “Shelly Island” because of the abundance of seashells that have been surfacing on the new landmass, the island is about a mile long and 300 m across, though it is growing. According to Mark Dowdle, the deputy superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore which oversees North Carolina’s barrier islands, says that “the island is still a mystery to the oceanographers who protect and preserve this part of the NC coast” (Brett Tingley, Natural World News, June 30, 2017).
    However they're birthed and however long they last, island-building is part of the amazing mystery of our living, breathing planet. In fact, new islands are being born all the time via a variety of natural processes as the Earth continues to create new islands. Ten of the most recent new islands are: Hunga Tonga, 2014, Tonga; Sholan and Jadid Islands, 2011, Red Sea between Africa and Yemen; Nichinoshima, 2013, south of Tokyo; Salzala Koh, 2013, Pakistan; Home Reef, 2006, Fiji; Norderoogsand, 2003, North Sea off coast of Germany; Tugtuligssup Sarqardlerssuua, 2014, Greenland; Kavachi, 2002, Solomon Islands (now sunk to just below the surface); Pinto Lake , 2016, Watson, California; Loihi Seamount, an underwater volcano whose eruptions are building up a rising island at a tenth of a foot per year.
    While none of these are giant risings (at least above the surface), they do show that land is continually rising somewhere in the world. That the land now known as the Brazilian Amazon Basin rose about 2000 years ago at the time of the crucifixion, should not be startling to anyone.