Were there Really Earthquakes? – Part III

Continued from the previous post regarding the unusual and specific wordage of events that accompanied the destruction outlined in 3 Nephi and Helaman 14.

In addition to the 3 hours of the tempest that shook the Land of Promise, there were further events in the land. The ancient Old Testament prophet, Zenos, who lived long before these events, “spake concerning the three days of darkness, which would be a sign given of [Christ’s] death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel” (1 Nephi 19:10, emphasis added). Apparently, portions of the house of Israel far removed from Jerusalem were destined to receive special signs as a witness of the Savior’s death.

(Image A – Samuel the Lamanite preaching from the top of the temple wall

 

Samuel the Lamanite said of these signs that “the angel said unto me that many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men” (Helaman 14:28).

Nephi, who foresaw in a vision the events which would occur among the Nephites when the Messiah died, said that: “I saw a mist of darkness on the face of the land of promise; and I saw lightnings, and I heard thunderings, and earthquakes, and all manner of tumultuous noises; and I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent; and I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up; and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth, because of the quaking thereof” (1 Nephi 12:4, emphasis added).

Nephi further said, ”after I saw these things, I saw the vapor of darkness, that it passed from off the face of the earth; and behold, I saw multitudes who had fallen because of the great and terrible judgments of the Lord” (1 Nephi 12:5, emphasis added).

When Nephi said “rent,” we need to understand that “rent” means “a fissure; a break or breach made by force; as a rent made in the earth.” Thus, “I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent” means that a fissure; a break or breach made by force in the earth took place, and the solid rocks were torn and broken into pieces.

Now, the events and the purpose of all this has been covered in the previous two articles. Here we pick up with the three days following. Of this, the disciple Nephi, mirroring what Zenos told those at Jerusalem, tells us that after the great destruction of the earthquakes, “that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen could feel the vapor of darkness” (3 Nephi 8:20, emphasis added)

The darkness was so thick that “there could be no light,” and “neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all” (3 Nephi 8:21, emphasis added). 

Moses stretched for his hand and darkness covered Egypt

 

It is interesting that there was a similar occurrence of this in the Old Testament when “the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days” (Exodus 10:21-23, emphasis added). This Egyptian darkness that could be felt was so total that the Egyptians had to feel their way around, and were unable to leave their houses.

As an example, dozens of fires kindled by the fall of hot ash around Mount St. Helens were quickly extinguished by the heavy fall of ash. Such ash can accumulate to several inches thick in a few minutes even at considerable distances from the erupting volcano. Not only will ashfall extinguish fires, but the gases erupting from a volcano can have the same effect. Another occurrence of darkness resulting from volcanoes took place in 536 AD, when much of the world went dark for a full 18 months as a mysterious fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing temperatures to drop, crops to fail and people to die—it was, you might say, the literal Dark Age.

Historians have long known that the middle of the sixth century was a dark hour in what used to be called the Dark Ages, but the source of the mysterious clouds has long been a puzzle. Now, an ultraprecise analysis of ice from a Swiss glacier by a team led by Michael McCormick, chair of Medieval History and glaciologist Paul Andrew Mayewski at the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine along the banks of the Stillwater River in the town of Orono, have fingered a culprit (Ann Gibbons, ”Why 536 was the Worst Year to be Alive,” Science Magazine, Washington DC, Nov 15, 2018).

An ash cloud rises from a single volcanic eruption

 

That culprit is what researchers have discovered to be one of the main sources of that fog covering much of the world—reporting that a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland in early 536 helped spread ash across the Northern Hemisphere, creating the fog. Like the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption. It was the deadliest volcanic eruption on record, creating a big enough ash that altered global climate patterns, causing years of famine.

What exactly did the first 18 months of this darkness look like? The Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, Israel, wrote that “the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year.” He also wrote that it seemed like the sun was constantly in eclipse; and that during this time, “men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death.”

Irish scientists have traced Ireland's environmental history using dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, that shows the most catastrophic environmental events to affect Ireland over the last 7,000 years

 

Accounts like these were not taken very seriously until the 1990s, researchers examined tree rings in Ireland and found that something weird did happen around 536. Summers in Europe and Asia became 35°F to 37°F colder, with China even reporting summer snow. This Late Antique Little Ice Age, as it’s known, came about when volcanic ash blocked out the sun (Becky Little,  “The Worst Time in History to Be Alive,” Science,” 30 Nov 2018)

In fact, Michael Sigl, now of the University of Bern, found that nearly every unusually cold summer over the past 2500 years was preceded by a volcanic eruption. A massive eruption—perhaps in North America, the team suggested—stood out in late 535 or early 536; another followed in 540. Sigl's team concluded that the double blow explained the prolonged dark and cold.

Mesoamerican Theorists can claim there was only surface damage that did not alter the landscape, and North American theorists claim there were no volcanoes at all, Nephi tells us a completely different story, for the Nephites, the subsequent disaster was ushered in by “a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land” (3 Nephi 8:5). That storm was so ferocious that thunder shook the ground, earthquakes rumbled, and lightning set cities on fire (3 Nephi 8:6–8; 9:3). Other cities sank into the depths of the sea, and still others were buried in the earth (3 Nephi 8:9–15; 9:4–10). The surface of the ground was generally broken up as open fissures developed and new hills and valleys were formed (3 Nephi 8:12–13, 17).

(See the next post, “Were there Really Earthquakes? – Part IV, for more on the unusual and specific wordage of events that accompanied the destruction, and the understanding that earthquakes and volcanoes resulting in the destruction outlined in 3 Nephi)