Andean Deformation and Uplift—How an Island Became the Land of Promise – Psrt I

We are forever being asked about, as well as criticized over, our claim that the rise of the Andes Mountain Range corresponds to the comment in the scriptural record when Samuel the Lamanite foretold events that would transpire at the time of Christ’s death, saying “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 fact, most known mountain building processes do require large amounts of time to complete their skyward climb. But for every rule there is an exception. Consider the Himalaya and Andes mountains — despite their relative geologic youth, these mountain belts rank among the world’s tallest peaks. And therein lies the mountainous paradox: How do geologically young mountains grow extremely tall in extremely short geologic time periods?
    A recent study tracking the uplift of a central portion of the massive Andes Mountains in South America shows that mountain building — what geologists term “orogeny” — may actually occur in much faster fits and spurts than previously realized due to the rapid loss of large amounts of material from the mountain’s root.

Mountains suddenly appeared in the Land of Promise where valleys had been

In addition, contrary to popular belief, this rise of the mountains in the Land of Promise took place in a very short time—the Disciple Nephi verifies in no uncertain terms, saying of this event: “they did last for about the space of three hours; and it was said by some that the time was greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours” (3 Nephi 8:19, emphasis added).
    This makes the mountains that suddenly rose from valleys in 30 BC would be the youngest mountains, if not in the world, certainly in the Western Hemisphere. This occurrence accompanied the destruction that took place in the land where “the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land” (3 Nephi 8:18). “And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth” (3 Nephi 8:27).
    One can hardly imagine such an earthquake that lasted three hours. By comparison, the worst quake in recent history was that of Krakatoa (Krakatau), an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, part of the Indonesian Island Arc. It erupted in August of 1883, with Krakatoa being one of the most deadly volcanic eruptions of modern history.

The Explosive eruption of the Ubinas volcano, West of Lake Titicaca and East of Arequipa in Peru, set off series of explosions that emitted a column of ash 3 miles high, has drifted with the wind taking with it toxic gases

On Sunday the 26th, the initial blast of the eruption sent a cloud of gas and debris an estimated 15 miles into the air above Perboewatan. It is thought that debris from the earlier eruptive activity must have plugged the neck of the cone, allowing pressure to build in the magma chamber. On the morning of the 27th, four tremendous explosions, heard as far away as Perth, Australia, 2,800 miles distant, plunged both Perboewatan and Danan into the caldera below the sea. It was accompanied by large booming noises and the most frightful thunders and cracklings.
    This like what the Disciple Nephi wrote: “And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder” (3 Nephi 8:6, emphasis added). “And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth” (3 Nephi 8:17, emphasis added).
    Where most earthquakes run horizontally, Krakatoa’s shock and quivering of the earth carried vertically, and the trembling continued throughout the day. The force of the quaking caused the water to flash-boil, creating a cushion of superheated steam that carried the pyroclastic flows up to 25 miles at speeds in excess of 62 mph. The eruption has been assigned a rating of 6 on the Volcanic Explosion Index (the worst being 8, a mega-colossal explosive eruption that can eject 240 cubic miles of tephra and have a cloud column height of over 66,000 feet).
    Krakatoa is estimated to have had the explosive force of 200 megatons of TNT. (Hiroshima bomb had a force of 20 kilotons, nearly ten thousand times less explosive as the Krakatoa eruption). The Krakatoa eruption was about ten times more explosive than the Mount St. Helen’s explosion of 1980 (with a rating of 5).
    In Krakatoa, 165 villages were destroyed, with a steamship carried a mile inland; 11 cubic miles of debris was hurled into the atmosphere, darkening the skies up to 275 miles from the volcano, and covered the entire western end of Java and the south of Sumatra for hundreds of square miles with a pall of impenetrable darkness.
    In the immediate vicinity, the dawn did not return to the darkness for three days with ash flung as far away as 3,775 miles.
    Compare this to the Book of Mormon account in 3 Nephi, in which there was: “darkness for the space of the days of the face of the an” (2 Nephi 8:3, emphasis added).
    There was more destruction in the Land Northward, “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 8:12)” and “the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth” (3 Nephi 8:17).

Krakatoa in Indonesia at 2,667 feet; Ubinas in Peru at 18,609’, having eight volcanic eruptions and earthquakes has eruptions every five or six years

Andean Peru accounted for two of the top three earthquakes in the Western Hemisphere during this century to-date, and the only two in an area claimed to be a Land of Promise location (the other one the Western Hemisphere was in Alaska).
    Of 97 earthquakes recorded in the U.S. since 1853, all but seven were recorded in the western states of California, Oregon and Washington; also 1 in Georgia, 2 in North Carolina,  1 in Colorado, 1 in Alabama, and 2 in Idaho, (Lyn Topinka, ”Volcano Hazards Program,” Volcanoes and History, Washington, USGS, 2011). Also, in Peru this year, there were at least 55 confirmed eruptions from 55 different volcanoes, with 11 of those being new eruptions that started during the year, with 60 to 80 occurring each year in Peru.
    It should be noted that an 8.5 megathrust earthquake that occurred along the Peruvian subduction zone, and an 8.8 quake near Lima, which ruptured ad opened up the earth along a 340 mile long portion. Perhaps we should equate this to the Disciple Nephi’s “they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land” (3 Nephi 8:18, emphasis added).

Volcanoes in the claimed Land of Promise locations

 It also might be of note that the number of volcanoes in the areas claimed to be the land of Promise:
Peru: 2,069
Mesoamerica: 90
Heartland: 0
Great Lakes: 0
    12 U.S. States have volcanoes, none are in or near the areas claimed to be the Land of Promise; 8 are west of the Rocky Mountains and 4 in in the Rockies.
(See the earlier post “Andean Deformation and Uplift—How an Island Became the Land of Promise – Part II,” regarding the volcanoes found in the Western Hemisphere in comparison to the scriptural record).