However, like the proceeding ten articles regarding the earthquake-volcano discussion, there are scientific answers to the size of ancient South America—answers that are not typically sought by those theorists interested in the Nephites of the Book of Mormon being located in Mesoamerica or North America.
Uplift of a land form from movement beneath toward the surface
The first and foremost answer to the Amazon Drainage Basin lies in the geological term “uplift.” This is a vertical elevation of the Earth's surface in response to natural causes. Broad, relatively slow and gentle uplift is termed warping, or epeirogeny—which is the regional uplift of an extensive area of the earth's crust—in contrast to the more concentrated and severe orogeny—a process in which a section of the earth's crust is folded and deformed by lateral compression to form a mountain range—the uplift associated with earthquakes and mountain building.
Before getting into this, we need to understand that to answer some of these erroneous beliefs, it should be understood that to qualify as a mountain, a landform must be at least 2,000 feet high. Anything lower is considered a hill. Mountains also tend to be more jagged and sharply pointed than hills, which are generally rounded and less steep.
How tall mountains attain is limited by several processes. First is isostasy—the bigger a mountain gets, the more it weighs down its tectonic plate, so it sinks lower. Second is "glacial buzzsaw"—the taller and colder a peak, the faster snow and ice will wear it away. This means that mountains can get as high in earth gravity as they are pushed up by plate tectonics, then they "peak." It is ther plate tectonics, or action beneath the earth, that determine a mountain’s height.
As an example, the average height of mountains in Guatemala is 5,850 feet. The mountains in Mesoamerica of any size are found in southern Mexico, where the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountain range of block mountains extending through southern Mexico and Guatemala, to the southeast along the Pacific coast from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec where it is called the Sierra Madre. In addition, the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes range, near the border with Mexico, is Guatemala's, and Central America's, highest mountain chain, which stands 12,588 feet at its highest point.
In addition, the Southern Highland mountains are a series of highly dissected mountain ranges and plateaus, including the Sierra Madre del Sur, Mesa del Sur, and on their southwestern side, approximately from Puerto Vallarta to the Gulf of Tehuantepec, are the Chiapas Highlands, also called the Sierra Madre de Chiapas.
The five highest mountain peaks in Mesoamerica. Note the Narrow Neck of Land
The mountain peak of Pico de Orizaba (Citlaltépetl) is at 18,406 feet—to the north in their Land Northward; Popocatépetl at 17,802 feet, and its neighbor, Iztaccíhuatl at 17,126 feet, both to the southeast of Mexico City—and both far north in their Land Northward; and Nevado de Toluca (Volcán Xinantécatl), to the southeast of Mexico City, at 15,354 feet, also to the far north in their Land Northward. All in all, there are 10 mountains between 13,000 and 18,000 feet in height, only half of which are over 15,000 feet, and only one of the top 10 and 21 of the top 40 (over 9,900 feet) are not within the Mesoamerican Land of Promise.
Compare that with the Andes of South America, the youngest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere and by far the tallest, whose top 40 mountains are all over 20,000 feet. In fact, 70 mountains are over 20,000 feet. Also, 190 Andes mountain peaks are higher than the highest peak in Mesoamerica.
In North America, where the closest mountains to, but not within, their Land of Promise are the Appalachian Mountains in North America that have an average height of 3,000 feet, and the highest peak is 6,684 feet.
In North America, east of the Rockies, many of the mountains are barely over the size of hills, and typically well rounded like hills. The highest peak in the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi River, is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina (not in their Land of Promise) at 6,684 feet (about three thousand feet lower than Tibet's lowest point and over 16,000 feet lower than the highest peak in the Andes).
The Appalachian mountains are mostly in the United States and southeastern Canada, running 1,500 miles from Newfoundland southwestward through North Carolina to Central Alabama. The mountain system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3000 feet. The term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region, and sometimes erroneously includes the Adirondack Mountains (all of which are outside, but closest to, their Land of Promise)—the closest point being where the range crosses through the southeastern part of Lower New York.
On the other hand, the Andes Mountains, which consist of a vast series of extremely high plateaus surmounted by even higher peaks that form an unbroken rampart over a distance of some 5,500 miles, are also
124 to 435 miles wide (through all of the Peruvian Land of Promise). Many of the peaks are active volcanoes, and form a continuous highland along the western edge of South America, and continue through Central America where they are called the Sierras, and into North America where they are called the Rocky Mountains, which form the longest mountain range in North America and the second longest range in the world. They stretch 3,000 miles north-to-south from New Mexico, across the United States to Montana, and well into Canada.
The Andes Mountains were formed by the Nazca Plate being subducted under the western edge of the South American Plate. Such a subduction zone occurs when a heavier and denser tectonic plate (most commonly an Oceanic plate) goes under a lighter, less denser plate (most commonly a Continental plate)
In Peru and Bolivia, the mountains form two parallel ranges that create a wide plateau known as the altiplano—where 50–60% of Peru’s people live. Continuing south, the Andes then form a single range that separates Chile from Argentina. About one-third of the nation’s population live in the narrow lowlands between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, running north to south along the entire length of Chile.
Now the question earlier posed in regard to uplift is seen in the varying degree of mountains (or their lack of them) in the three major areas that theorists propose and South America. As stated earlier, the vast size of South American continent causes people to reject this area out of hand as the location of the Land of Promise. However, as geologists of ancient Peru know, Jacob’s discussion of the Land of Promise being an island is indeed a fact. So how did the interior of the continent, known, in part, as the Amazon Basin rise above the surface? Is there scientific support for this, or is it just an idea people have? The answer is not only do we see “uplift” in the mountains, but there has been the uplift of the entire Basin.
(see the next post, “Rising of the Amazon Basin and Disappearance of the Sea East – Part II,” for the scientific support of this event)
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