The Andean Uplift that Changed the Whole Face of the Land (3 Nephi 8:12) – Part II

 

South America as it is today: 6.9 million square miles

 

Continued from the previous post regarding how uninformed individuals have overlooked South America as the Land of Promise because they look at the continent as it appears today, not as it appeared prior to the crucifixion.

It is interesting, though, that initially in the 1830s, with the publication of the Book of Mormon, early members thought of the Land of Promise as North America being the Land Northward, South America being the Land Southward, and Central America being the Narrow Neck of Land. Then with the controversy over Frederick G. Williams note of Lehi landing at the 30º South Latitude in Chile, followed by the advent of the limited Land of Promise theory promoted by FARMS and scholars at BYU, South America was disregarded and the Land of Promise was shrunk to be just Mesoamerica.

Today, of course, there are numerous theories that disregard Andean South America because as mentioned earlier, they assess it as it is today—not as it was before the crucifixion.

Geologic studies show that in antiquity, the Andean Belt (Andean Shelf Uplift) was above the water line, with ancient seas creating an island; today, with the full formation of the Andes, they are the longest continental mountain range in the world

 

Prior to the crucifixion, South America was a series of one large island, a few smaller islands, solid shields, and the Andean Belt or Shelf. Then, with the crucifixion: “the 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), “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). In fact, the Disciple Nephi emphatically stated: “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).

Now, in 1828 the word “asunder” meant: “Apart; into parts; separately; in a divided state,” and the word “divide” meant: “To part or separate an entire thing; to part a thing into two or more pieces.” “Asunder” is used 22 times in the Bible, 13 in the Old Testament and 9 in the New Testament.

Thus the Disciple Nephi uses “divide asunder” to meant “to break apart or separate the entire Earth (all of the Land of Promise) into parts—which is the same meaning these words “divide asunder” have today.

Consequently, the destruction brought about by the relentless quaking of the whole Earth (entire Land of Promise) over a three-hour period (3 Nephi 8:19) was so constantly persistent that Nephi felt it necessary to compare the destruction to the breaking up into pieces of the entire land. This is even far more severe when we compare the longest earthquake on record of “about 10 minutes” in Santiago, Chili, on May 22, 1960, with the three hours recorded by Nephi (3 Nephi 8:19)—and the 4 minutes and 38 second Alaskan earthquake, the longest quake in North America; however, compare that to the 10 to 30 seconds that most earthquakes last—3 hours would be a horrendously l-o-n-g time.

In a paper published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Carmala Garzione (left), a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, and colleagues, explains that the Altiplano plateau in the central Andes—and most likely the entire mountain range—was formed through a series of rapid growth spurts. According to Garzione: “This study provides increasing evidence that the plateau formed through periodic rapid pulses, not through a continuous, gradual uplift of the surface, as was traditionally thought—in geology terms, it’s the blinking of an eye” (Carmala Garzione, et al., “Andes Mountains Formed by Growth Spurts,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, University of Rochester, New York, April 21, 2014, emphasis added).

According to Garzione: “In geodynamics, delamination refers to the loss and sinking (foundering) of the portion of the lowermost lithosphere from the tectonic plate which it was attached and occurs when the lower continental crust and mantle lithosphere break away from the upper continental crust” (Carmala Garzione, “Mountain Ranges Rise Much More Rapidly than Geologists Expected,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, University of Rochester, New York, 2008).

This “breakaway” causes the upper crust to shoot upward like a cork that is released below the surface in water. Depending how large the lower continental crust and mantle lithosphere are before breaking away from the upper crust, determines how far the upper crust ascends. While geologists talk in millions of years, to the Lord this took place in a very short time and likely in surging outbursts as the valleys shot up into mountains, whose height was great, over a three-hour period (3 Nephi 8:19).

Evidently and normally, without the Lord being involved, it has been understood that the Andes mountain range has been growing as the Nazca oceanic plate slips underneath the South American continental plate, causing the Earth’s crust to shorten (by folding and faulting) and thicken. But that left two questions: How quickly have the Andes risen to their current height, and what was the actual process that enabled their rise? However, at the time of the crucifixion, this changed. In a three-hour period, the most violent earthquake ever known struck the Land of Promise eliciting extreme comments by the Disciple Nephi as he recorded the events following the mortal death of the Savior.

To better understand the changes that have taken place in the area of Peru as a result of the Andean Uplift, it is important to consider the geomorphology or study of the origin of landforms of the Region—that is, the scientific study developed in the late 19^th century by the geologist who is often called the “father of American geography”: William Morris Davis (left), a Harvard graduate and American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist and meteorologist.”

Davis was a founder of the Association of American Geographers, and heavily involved with the National Geographic Society in its early years, writing a number of articles for the magazine. His works have dove-tailed compatibly with modern studies in tectonic theory, especially where tectonics are “cataclysmic”—that is, relating to or denoting a violent natural event, such as "a cataclysmic earthquake,” as opposed to a slow, millions-of-years events.

In addition, his findings led to an understanding of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near the Earth's surface. Obviously, when the Uplift occurred in Andean Peru, it changed the entire surface of most of western South America and the Andes Shelf area, as described by Nephi, Samuel the Lamanite and the disciple Nephi in the scriptural record.

Just as obviously, this science of landforms that has an emphasis on their origin, evolution, form, and distribution across the physical landscape would be essential to better understand what took place in Andean Peru, especially during the cataclysmic events outlined in 3 Nephi that affected the entire landscape. This knowledge and the studies behind it would be essential to the understanding of the physical geography of Andean Peru, and in a small way, of being better able to pinpoint, or at least intelligently consider, what happened to the landscape and what those results might have been.

As the map at the beginning of this article shows, geology has found evidence of an ancient South America divided into islands and stable shields, which matches Jacob’s settlement in the temple when he taught the Nephites that they were on an island. This island is long and narrow running north and south, matching Mormon’s description of the various lands and their directions in the Land of Promise (Alma 22:27-34). To be certain, neither Mesoamerica, Heartland or the Great Lakes match Mormon’s writing on these points—but Andean South America that forms a continuous highland along the western edge of South America does match Mormon’s descriptions.