Where Were the Jaredite Lands and the Land Northward?
The Land Northward was fraught with earthquakes, frequent storms, and lightening (3 Nephi 8:5,7), resulting in a more great and terrible destruction than in the Land Southward (3 Nephi 8:12). Consequently, the Land Northward would have contained more cause for the shaking the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder (3 Nephi 8:6). Since “shaking of the whole earth” would suggest earthquakes, which result from volcanic activity caused by tectonic plate movement. Such destruction on a such a widespread area would have to be from a goodly number of volcanoes and a long coastal boarder where two plates met, one subducting beneath the other.
The Land Northward in Andean South America covered an area about the size of Arizona, which is around 113,000 square miles in size, and the seventh largest State in the U.S. in equivalent square miles. The Jaredite lands covered the size little larger than Ecuador, including most of that present day country minus the southern portion from about the 2º south latitude southward, with the addition of a small portion of southern Colombia and a small portion of northeastern Peru.
The Land Northward, then as now, was divided into three continental regions—the Costa (coast), Sierra (mountains), and Oriente (east). The continental regions extended the length of the land from south to north and after the rise of the Andes, were separated by those majestic mountain ranges, including the Chongon Colonche Range along the Pacific coastal area to the west, which, together with the Mache Chindul Range is the only major mountain range west of the Andes and covered in indigenous tropical wet forest (before large areas were cleared for agriculture in the most recent centuries). The Cordillera Occidental range is one of two main mountain ranges, and runs along the eastern half of the land, with the Cordillera Occidental running along the western portion. A third range of these Andes is the Cordillera Central or Real (Cordillera of Quito), a chain of mountains in between, including the major volcanic peaks of Antisana, Cotopaxi, and Cayambe (Chimboraxo is in the Cordillera Occidental).
The natural land hazards of the Land Northward (Ecuador and southern Colombia) included frequent earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity; and periodic droughts and floods.
La Costa. The western coastal area of the Jaredite Land Northward bordered the Pacific Ocean to the west, encompassing a broad coastal plain, and then rose to the foothills of the Andes Mountains to the east. This coastal strip in the time of the Jaredites was forest, though by the time the Nephites moved into the land after 1500 years of Jaredite building and war, it was only with trees in the southern half of the land. Though the Nephites replanted trees beginning about 50 BC, which grew into great forests by the time the Spanish arrived, today it is estimated that 98% of the native forest has once again been denuded in favor of cattle ranching and other agricultural production, including banana, cacao and coffee plantations.
The forest fragments that do survive are primarily found along the coastal mountain ranges of Mache-Chindul, Jama-Coaque, and Chongon-Colonche, and include tropical dry forest, tropical wet forest, tropical moist evergreen forest, premontane cloud forest, and mangrove forest. Collectively known as the Pacific Equatorial Forest. These forest remnants are considered the most endangered tropical forest in the world, and are part of the Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot. It is of medium grain black sand and cinder.
All along the whole coast of South America the wind blows outward form south to west all year around driving the ocean currents before it, until you reach the equator, then the coastal waters moves from north to west. 60 miles off shore there is a constant current to the northward, enabling shipping moving northward. From the south (Chiloe) to the equator, the current sets to the westward, and becomes stronger in the warmer latitude of Peru and been called the Peruvian Current. Its westerly set is felt on the coast between Arica and Pisco, especially to the southward of Pisco—this is where the South Pacific Equatorial Current Gyre heads west and out into the Pacific to cross toward the Philippines and Australia. Once a vessel reaches Paita along the northwest Peruvian coast, the westward currents become the strongest heading toward the Galápagos Islands. Along these coastal waters a light wind blows southward, especially at night.
The tip or promontory of Santa Elena Peninsula known as Punta Salinas (Salinas Point): Note the (yellow arrow) strong northward moving currents to the south of the peninsula that move directly in toward land; Also note the (white arrow) sea to the north shows no currents moving inland or any currents at all, since the northern waters here gently move toward the south
A 90-mile long Santa Elena Peninsula extends from the Bay of Guayaquil in the east along the flat land of the Peninsula’s southern coast to Bahía Muyuyo, and contains the westernmost point on mainland Ecuador that is bordered by the Gulf of Guayaquil to the south and the Santa Elena Bay to the north. Beyond Santa Elena, on the north side of the peninsula, the coast continues northward to Machalilla Point. The forests here are dominated by Ceibo and Pigio trees reminiscent of Baobab trees in Africa. Over 200 species of birds have been recorded in Cerro Blanco, among them 7 threatened species (including the highly endangered Great Green Macaw), 22 endemic species, and 30 range-restricted species. The macaws are carefully protected and are unlikely to be seen without special permission to gain access to the area where they're found.
The south of Santa Elena continues for 50 miles around the Gulf of Guayaquil and us the area where the Jaredites landed along the southern coast of the Peninsula. This is where the winds and currents blow inland and also past the Peninsula. Obviously, the Peruvian Current would have swept the barges northward along the Peruvian coast, and with the cold water current between this Peruvian Current and the coast, the barges would have bypassed the westward surface current that strikes the bulge of Peru and takes sailing vessels back out to sea. This light current bypasses to the west of Amortajada Island (now known as Santa Clara Island or Isla de Los Muertos), which sits astraddle the imaginary line between the ocean and the Gulf of Guayaquil. Because, in part, the shoals that stretch almost six miles off the Payanas Point along the southwestern tip of Jameli Island, pushes the current to the west, and the Amortajada Shoals that stretch out for two miles to the southwest of the land, some of which are awash. The current then continues on northward directly toward the eastern edge of Santa Elena Peninsula, through humpback whale infested waters, from which the Lord assured the Brother of Jared he would protect them (Ether 6:10).
As the barges moved to the surface in the upwelling current, they would have been drawn toward the west, heading directly into the center of the 90-mile long Santa Elena Peninsula where the ocean currents would have drawn them into shore, very likely somewhere between Chanduy and the Playas.
Beyond the Santa Elena point, the surf is choppy and rough and would have been very difficult in the barges had they landed further north. No doubt the currents would have brought them into the peninsula somewhere between Mar Bravo beach, where the waves are strong toward shore, and eastward all the way to the Engabao or the Playas, where the beaches afford a perfect landing site for the Jaredite barges where the strong currents bring wave after wave into shore.
While the topography of the peninsula itself is relatively flat, with low terraces bordering seasonal streams and small rolling hills up to two hundred elevation on the peninsula periphery—inland, were mangrove forests and dense gallery forests along interior streams separated by grasslands. Further north in Ecuador were costal rain forests harbored a great diversity of fauna and flora, and the further north into Colombia were wet forests and semi-arid savannas. The coastal plains are typically tropical heat with the temperature becoming cooler inland at higher elevations. Two distinctions of this area is that Santa Elena peninsula receives about four-inches of rain a year, and to the east at Guyaquil, the area receives about forty-inches of rain. In addition, while the Santa Elena coast in the south faces to the southwest, the central coast faces west and the north coast faces northwest.
This Land Northward area certainly does not match and area in eastern North America, specifically the Heartland and the Great Lakes theories locations, and only slightly Mesoamerica.
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