Indonesia\u2019s Mount Rinjani erupts in 1994. \u00a0The conjunction of volcanic eruptions with storms of thunder and lightning, which is often reported, is nicely illustrated in this image
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I share a few more notes here from a significant article that a longtime friend of mine wrote nearly a quarter of a century ago: \u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist\u2019s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,\u201d\u00a0BYU Studies<\/em>\u00a037\/3 (1997-1998).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Kowallis begins his article with a three hundred year-old traditional oral account of the enormous volcanic eruption that occurred off the northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea. \u00a0But it\u2019s not the only such report.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another describes \u201cthunder, lightning, and tremors\u201d as forerunners to the great \u201ctime of darkness.\u201d \u00a0Another reports that, leading up to the eruption, \u201ca storm was on its way and there was a rustling and whistling in the air.\u201d \u00a0Still other reports talk of winds and earthquakes, floods and loud noises, fumes, and unusual variations in temperature. \u00a0During the eruption itself, at least as the eruption was perceived by survivors in the region, many people were killed when their huts collapsed or by falling stones. \u00a0Others apparently died from fumes, or by sores caused by hot falling volcanic ash. \u00a0Along the coasts, crops and trees were destroyed by floods of water. \u00a0Understandably, too, in the wake of the cataclysm, with crops dead or dying, fields buried under volcanic materials, trade routes disrupted, and farmers and merchants among the fatalities, many who had survived the violence nonetheless died of starvation. \u00a0One account explains that \u201call bad men, trouble makers, people with bad thoughts, thieves, etc.\u201d perished during that \u201ctime of darkness.\u201d \u00a0(138)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is astonishing \u2014 and it is surely a reflection of the magnitude of the event they narrate \u2014 that such accounts survived for more than three hundred years. \u00a0But what is perhaps most amazing, perhaps, is that (apart from some exaggeration and a few embellishments) the stories, seen altogether, seem to accord with what physical or geological analysis of the effects of the great eruption has disclosed about it. \u00a0\u201cAll of the conclusions based on this physical evidence,\u201d says Professor Kowallis, \u201cagree well with the oral traditions.\u201d \u00a0(138)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, taken together, they are far more than slightly reminiscent of the account given in the Book of Mormon, in the book of 3 Nephi.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the abstract of Dr. Kowallis\u2019s article says, \u201cGeological studies and eyewitness accounts of volcanic activity show the likelihood that the massive destruction reported in 3 Nephi was caused by an explosive volcanic eruption.\u201d \u00a0(137)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Phoenix, Arizona<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I share a few more notes here from a significant article that a longtime friend of mine wrote nearly a quarter of a century ago: \u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist\u2019s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,\u201d\u00a0BYU Studies\u00a037\/3 (1997-1998). \u00a0 Dr. Kowallis begins his article with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1341,56,8529,8520,1356,1353,8526,1350,1050,1369,1347,8523,8531],"class_list":["post-82916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-3-nephi","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-cataclysm","tag-catastrophe","tag-christ","tag-destruction","tag-devastation","tag-earthquake","tag-geology","tag-jesus","tag-seismology","tag-visit","tag-volcano"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Volcanic](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/02\/Rinjani_1994_cropped1.png\")
<\/a>