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

There are several beliefs or theories regarding the place where Lehi Landed and the location of Lehi’s overall land of promise. Writing in 1985, John L. Sorenson, a long-time Dean of Anthropology at BYU, with the current status of Professor Emeritus, and who was considered the “Guru of Book of Mormon Archaeology,” placed his theory in Mesoamerica.

 From the very beginning, Sorenson (left) held the belief that Lehi landed in Mesoamerica and while pursuing his master’s degree in archaeology from BYU, he participated in his first archaeological dig in Mesoamerica—from January until June of 1953 he was involved in the New World Archaeological Foundation’s initial fieldwork in Mexico, in the southern state of Tabasco.

After obtaining his doctorate, Sorenson began teaching archaeology from 1963 through 1986 at BYU, following in the footsteps of Max Wells Jakeman, called “the Father of Book of Mormon Archaeology,” around whom the BYU Archaeology Department was first formed in 1946, and whose doctorate dissertation surrounded Mesoamerica—he was also the author of The Origin and History of the Mayans, Vol.1, (Research Publishing Company, Los Angeles,1945). 

 For the next twenty years, with Jakeman (left) teaching his belief in Mesoamerica, followed by Sorenson’s twenty-three years teaching Mesoamerica, dominated the 880A-Image Sorensonarchaeology and anthropology instruction at the “Y.”

Thus, Mesoamerica was taught to, or influenced, thousands of students over a forty-three-year span at BYU that Mesoamerica was the setting of Lehi’s land of promise, and many of these students went on to teach or influence thousands of other students as well as those from other walks of life (“Max Wells Jakeman Memorial,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol.7, No.1, Article 15, July 31, 1997).

In fact, the idea that a carved stone monument from the tropical forest of southern Mexico shows Lehi’s dream was first proposed by Jakeman (John E. Clark, “A New Artistic Rendering of Izapa Stela 5: A Step toward A New Artistic Rendering of Izapa Stela 5, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol.8, No.1, Article 6, Jan 31, 1999, p24).

Needless to say, then, that from the very beginning with BYU archaeological studies and fieldwork in Mesoamerica, thousands of students and members of the Church were influenced by a single understanding—Lehi landed in Mesoamerica, which was his land of promise.

Almost without comment in his 1985 work, Sorenson dismissed out of hand Andean South America as the Land of Promise because, as he said, the continent is far too big for Lehi’s land and not worth mentioning—which he did not cover as a possible Nephite location in his book: An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon.

As has been written about in this blog many times, when Samuel the Lamanite (left) spoke the words “the angel put in his mouth,” he said at the time of the crucifixion that existing mountains would become valleys, and existing valleys would become mountains, “whose height is great” during the upheaval that would occur. Samuel’s exact words were: “And behold, there shall be great tempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great” (Helaman 14:23, emphasis added).

Note that Samuel twice referred to the word “many,” which meant in 1828 “Numerous; comprising a great number,” and today means “a large number, numerous.” Thus, the Land of Promise does not have a few mountains “whose height is great”—but it has many, a large or great number, or numerous mountains “whose height is great.”

The mountains ‘whose height is great” was not just a local phenomenon but one that took place across the entire Land of Promise

 

Nor was this a localized area within the Land of Promise but, as the disciple Nephi described it, “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).

It is interesting that Sorenson dismisses this upheaval as minimal topographical changes, when leveling and removing mountains and raising others to a very high level, for such activity would change the course of rivers, drastically alter the lay of the land, change road directions and travel distances. In addition, since everyone in the Land of Promise could see for themselves this destruction and its results so they could not deny the Christ and his promises (Helaman 14:28)—these high mountains would have had to be throughout the Nephite lands—and when Samuel was driven out of the Land of Zarahemla, he went back to his own land where he preached to his own people (Helaman 16:7)—thus the Lamanite lands were also affected by drastic change.

Because of these high mountains and the complete loss of major cities covered up by mountains (3 Nephi 8:10), sunk into the earth (3 Nephi 9:5), or into the sea (3 Nephi 8:9)—thus, the lives of the surviving people were forever changed. Additionally, roads were destroyed, solid rock formations above and beneath the ground were altered, the face of the entire land was transformed (3 Nephi 8:18).

Geomorphologicaly speaking, this landform change in the Land of Promise has been called the Andean Uplift, which was the rising of the Andes mountains—an orogeny driven by a reactivation of a subduction system along the western margin of South America. This subduction occurred when the oceanic plate descended beneath the convergent continental margin, forming the coastal orogeny or mountain cordillera. It has long been known that the Peru and central Chilean segments exhibit an unusually shallow plate dip (Muawia Barazangi and Bryan L. Isacks, “Spatial distribution of earthquakes and subduction of the Nazca plate beneath South America,” Geology, vol.4, 1976, pp686-692).

For clarification, geomorphology is a subscience and one of the component sciences of Geology, and is the study of landforms, their classification, origin, development, and history; while geology is the science that studies the structure of the Earth, together with its origin and development, especially by examination of its rocks and the matter that makes up rocks.

To find the Land of Promise, a land of very tall mountains over a very large area is one key element, as well as Mountains with a recent history of suddenly rising.

(See the next post for more on the Andean Uplift the Disciple Nephi’s statement that the entire face of the Earth was changed)