Inquiry about Land of Promise – Part II

Continuing with the inquiry of the reader Tyrus regarding questions about the Book of Mormon Land of Promise. In the last post, we responded last to the “sinking” of the city of Moroni and others during the time of the crucifixion. 
    Continuing with Tyrus' questions:
6) “This means that they were not sunk by rain water, otherwise the water would have dissipated. They weren’t covered by a tsunami or the water would have receded back to the ocean and these cities wouldn’t have remained under water. The cities would have had to either fall into the ocean or the water of a large lake (that was big enough to be considered the sea) would have had to rise up to sink the cities (probably through some volcanic/tectonic event). Either way, the water was still there after the Crucifixion. How does this fit with your theory of the Andes rising up to displace the East Sea?”
    Response: “First of all, the Andes did not rise out of the East Sea, the Andes rose as a result of two tectonic plates slamming into one another, which is how mountains are formed, thus creating high mountains from level valleys as Samuel prophesied. In this case, very suddenly and very catastrophically as noted by all the damage.

Now, when the land or mountains rise as a result of this tectonic action, the water table is affected, both above and beneath the surface (aquifer). In this case, the surface water (sea covering the eastern continent) begins to be pushed back out of the way, but first it cascades into the deepening trenches formed by the tectonic collision as the land sinks and is covered by the water. Then the waters are pushed back away from the rapidly rising ground (mountains) toward lower ground. We see this in the remains of the elevated lands (mountains) around Lake Titicaca.
    Thus, as the Andes came up, the water then known as the East Sea receded across the rising continental shelf to the north, east and south through and into forming the present nine drainage basins of the continent. Mostly, however, the water flowed into and remained within the Amazonian area (Brazil), since that land did not rise that high and much of the water was trapped in various low areas. This is seen even today, as the Amazonian Drainage Basin floods most of this area during half of the year as more water is added from rains and snow melt in the Andes, etc.

The Amazonian Drainage Basin is barely above water, with many areas submerged year round and the entire area underwater from winter flooding for four months of the year

As the mountains rose suddenly, 35 to 40 water sources were trapped, later to run off toward the sea to the west in the Pacific Ocean, with others flowing to the east in the Amazonian River Flood Plain or south into Patagonia. Geologists have drawn maps of these eastern seas and how they were altered when the continent came up to its present form.In addition, Charles Darwin, not our favorite source of anything, wrote extensively about this happening in the time of man since he found numerous ocean shells and marine life trapped in the high Andes mountains on his way from Santiago, Chile, over the Andes to Argentina, claiming they were quite recently deposited at those heights by the sea which had receded hundreds of miles to the east.
    As mentioned in the last post, what 4 Nephi 1:9 says, is that “Many cities which had been sunk, and waters came up in the stead, thereof; therefore these cities could not be renewed,” however, it does not say that a sea, lake or river was then formed in its place—only that the cities could not be renewed. Nor does it say all the cities resulted in the same end situation. The point is, that when land (cities) are inundated with water, it is typically from a tidal wave or tsunami, both are natural results of earthquakes near water (seas). Thus, these cities (Moroni) were covered with water at one point, which means they could have been swept away, covered with mud from the sea or from collapsing land as the waters came up, inundating the land so that it became unbuildable for many years until the water recedes into the water table, sometimes leaving ground suited for building again, sometimes not; or the land could have been covered by trapped water (“in the stead thereof”) that formed a lake, etc.
    The point is, that all we know from the scriptural record is that where the city of Moroni once stood near the East Sea and near the border between Zarahemla and the Land of Nephi, it was first covered with water, and secondly that it disappeared (covered with water or swept away) and could not be renewed, and that there was water where the city once stood. In the case of the trapped or standing water (“in the stead thereof”), in the thousand to 1500 years afterward before the Spanish arrived, this water would likely have dissipated, i.e., either runoff back toward the sea or seeped down into the aquifer.

Another example of this standing water left after a tsunami that inundates the land and makes renewal impossible for some time is seen in the tsunami that hit Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, on March 14, 2011. It is of note that Miyako city, which has 33-foot sea walls, warning sirens, and routinely conducts tsunami drills, was completely destroyed as the water rose in the bay to a height far exceeding 33-feet and crashed over the anti-tsunami walls. After the tsunami receded, it left behind a devastated area inundated with standing water that had nowhere to go, hampering any attempt at cleanup or renewal for a lengthy period. This was the largest mega-temblor in the nation’s history and fourth-largest in recorded history, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Honshu, on mainland Japan Miyagi, Japan 2011.
    It should be kept in mind that the damages of these and all other earthquake-tsunami events happen in a matter of seconds to a few minutes—the earthquake damage that hit in 3 Nephi lasted 3 hours. One can hardly even imagine the damage involved in three hours.
(See the next post, “Inquiry about Land of Promise – Part III,” for more on this and the rest of the questions from Tyrus.