First of all, the Land Northward is described as having earthquakes, as was the entire Land of Promise. The Disciple Nephi makes that clear when he said, “…insomuch that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder.” He then went on to say: “…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 8:12, emphasis added). Note that the term “the whole earth” references the entire Land of Promise, i.e., the land promised to Lehi and his descendants and that covered in the Book of Mormon.
While the word “earthquake” is an English term dating far back in history from the late 13th Century, when the word eorthequakynge was used for a “movement or vibration of a part of the earth's crust,” and made by combining “earth” and “quake.” In this sense Old English had eorðdyn, eorðhrernes, eorðbeofung, and eorðstyrung.
Old English had the verbal noun cwacung "shaking, trembling." Also compare Middle English quavinge of erþe "an earthquake" (14c.), earthquave (n.), early 15c. Quake Rare except in combinations, and now usually as a shortening of earthquake, in which use it is attested from 1640s
Defined today, it is a sudden release of energy in the earth's crust or upper mantle, usually caused by movement along a fault plane or by volcanic activity and resulting in the generation of seismic waves which can be destructive.
While the word “earthquake” is how we say the word today in the western world, in the middle east it is common to say: “quaking of the earth,” and the term “quaking of the whole earth” referred to all the land (or earth) making up the contiguous region people occupied.
The Greek word “seismos,” meaning “a shaking, a commotion, an earthquake,” is found 14 times in the New Testament of the KJV Bible—4 times in Matthew, one each in Mark, Luke and Acts, and seven times in Revelations. It does not exactly appear in the Old Testament, though it is translated as such, since by the time the KJV was put together, the word “earthquake” was known and appeared in certain translations of the word “ra’ash” רַעַשׁ, which means a “quaking, shaking”—and is translated as “earthquake” seven times, as commotion, rattling, rumbling, shaking, trembling, and tumult, 12 times.
It should also be noted that the Disciple Nephi describes the event of the whole earth shaking as though it was not a new happening, but the present one was far bigger, stronger, much longer and far more destructive than had previously ever been known in the during the 600 years the Nephites occupied the Land of Promise. He also made it clear that: “such an one as never had been known in all the land” (3 Nephi 8:5, 11).
Earthquakes, of course, create ground shaking—and sever quakes create extreme shaking of the ground. While this all happens in modern times in a matter of seconds or a minute or two, the Disciple Nephi said it took three hours! Three hours! Can anyone imagine a three-hour earthquake that shook buildings and toppled them to the ground?
An earthquake is the ground shaking caused by a sudden slip on a fault. Stresses in the earth's outer layer push the sides of the fault together, and stress builds up and the rocks slip suddenly, releasing energy in waves that travel through the earth's crust and cause the shaking that is felt during an earthquake (Ground Movement and Ground Shaking,” USGS, Department of the Interior, DOI Inspector General).
As a result, the Disciple Nephi said: “And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed” (3 Nephi 8:17).
Keep in mind that the largest earthquake ever recorded by seismic instruments anywhere on the earth was a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960, and lasted for approximately 10 minutes. The resulting tsunamis affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, southeast Australia, and the Aleutian Islands. That earthquake occurred on a fault that is almost 1,000 miles long and 150 miles wide, dipping into the earth at a shallow angle. But the earthquake that the Disciple Nephi wrote about was in all the land, far longer than 1,000 miles and far wider than 150 miles!
Even so, despite his writing: “there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward” (3Nephi 8:11), he also said, “there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward, for behold, 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, emphasis added).
In 1960 a 9.5 earthquake, the largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded, occurred off the coast of southern Chile, which generated a tsunami that was destructive not only along the coast of Chile, but also across the Pacific in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines. The number of fatalities in Chile associated with both the earthquake and tsunami has been estimated to be between 490 and 5,700, an estimated 2 million people were left homeless, and in Hawaii, the tsunami caused 61 deaths, 43 injuries in Japan, where the tsunami hit almost a day after the earthquake, causing 139 deaths and destroyed almost 3,000 homes. At least 21 people died in the Philippines due to the tsunami
The thing about earthaquakes, they do not just happen, there is a specific and constant reason for them. This is the steady background motions of Earth’s crust which occur as a result of tectonic plate motions. As the Pacific plate slides past the North American plate, they become stuck at the boundary zone between them, which typically has many faults. If these faults are stuck, then there may be no motion across them for tens to hundreds of years, during which time they build up stress until an earthquake occurs. The earthquake relieves the stress, the fault is stuck again, and the cycle of stress buildup and release begins anew. This process has been documented on the Hayward fault and San Andreas fault for the past few thousand years using geologic investigations (USGS).
In the Land Northward, the home of the Jaredites for their entire stay in the Land of Promise covering about 1300 to 1400 years, 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), the Land Northward obviously 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 the movement of tectonic plates, which push mountains upward and cause volcanoes, the Land Northward would have to have been subject to earthquakes, be along large and lengthy joining of tectonic plates, and filled with volcanoes that are also described by the Disciple Nephi who stated: “And it came to pass 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; And there could be no light, because of the darkness, 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; And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land. And it came to pass that it did last for the space of three days that there was no light seen” (3 Nephi 8:20-23).
The volcanic ash from a single volcano can darken the sky so much that it is both difficult to see and to move around. Consider the vaporous darkness spawned by a dozen volcanoes or more erupting in the Land of Promise at the same time. No better way to describe these events than to think in terms of multiple volcanoes erupting from the extreme pressures brought about by extraordinary earthquake activity from multiple plate tectonic movement of built up pressures.
Map showing large scale earthquakes for the year—note not a single one in the Heartland and east of North America; Approximate epicenters: Light Green: 4.0−5.9; Dark Green: 6.0−6.9; Orange: 7.0−7.9; and Red: 8.0+
Thus, we can see immediately that the Heartland and Great Lakes models simply do not qualify for being the Land of Promise since: 1) there are no plate tectonics slamming into each other beneath the surface inland in the United States; 2) there are no volcanoes to create the darkness from volcanic ash eruptions, nor the darkness that could be felt; and 3) there is no record of drastic earthquake activity in these two areas; and 4) a long coastal boarder where two plates met, one subducting beneath the other over a long distance.
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