{"id":83217,"date":"2020-02-28T16:12:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T23:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=83217"},"modified":"2020-02-29T01:20:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T08:20:53","slug":"geology-and-third-nephi-6-storms-and-tempests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/geology-and-third-nephi-6-storms-and-tempests.html","title":{"rendered":"Geology and Third Nephi (6): Storms and Tempests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Strombolian eruption of Guatemala\u2019s Volc\u00e1n de Fuego just after midnight on 3 March 2013. Taken by Kevin Sebold from Fuego\u2019s north ridge, approximately 100 meters from the crater.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve begun to publish a short series of notes mostly extracted from an article written by a longtime friend of mine, the Latter-day Saint geologist Dr. Bart Kowallis, about the natural catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon as occurring in the New World around the time of the death of Christ in the Old World: \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)<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGeology and Third Nephi (1): The Time of Darkness (A)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGeology and Third Nephi (2): Santorini and the Land of the Pharaoh\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGeology and Third Nephi (3): The Time of Darkness (B)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGeology and Third Nephi (4): An Explosive Volcanic Eruption?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGeology and Third Nephi (5): Evidence from Ice Cores?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On \u00a0pages 148-158 of his article, Professor Kowallis provides historical parallels to the storm, tempest, whirlwinds, thunder, and lightning described in the Book of Mormon at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. \u00a0Citing accounts from such eruptions as Mount St. Helens (1980), Mt. Pel\u00e9e on the Caribbean island of Martinique (1902), the island volcano of Krakatoa off the coast of Java (1883), and Tambora (1815), he illustrates in fascinating and dramatic detail how very true to geological reality the narrative in 3 Nephi is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It scarcely needs to be said, I think, that this raises an intriguing question: \u00a0How much could Joseph Smith have known about volcanism in 1828-1830?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He certainly had no first hand experience with them. \u00a0He was, after all, born in Vermont, a state that apparently has no known volcanoes. \u00a0He grew up to maturity in New York State, which evidently has no volcanoes. \u00a0(See this list of the volcanoes in the United States<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could he have learned of them through study? \u00a0This would need to be established. \u00a0It\u2019s very doubtful, for instance, that any library near him had much of a collection of books on seismology. \u00a0In fact, it\u2019s even doubtful that he would have had access to such libraries in the first place: They typically required payment of fees, and there is no record to indicate that he or his family were members of any library.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, even assuming that books on volcanology or seismology were somehow available in his information environment, the young Joseph Smith seems to have been less than an avid student\u00a0before his call to prophethood: \u00a0\u201cJoseph,\u201d his mother later recalled, \u201cwas less inclined to the study of books than any child we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve begun to publish a short series of notes mostly extracted from an article written by a longtime friend of mine, the Latter-day Saint geologist Dr. Bart Kowallis, about the natural catastrophe described in the Book of Mormon as occurring in the New World around the time of the death of Christ in […]<\/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":[1341,56,8529,8520,1356,1353,8526,8556,1350,1050,8559,1369,8831,1347,3838,8825,8828,8531,8822],"class_list":["post-83217","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-drought","tag-earthquake","tag-geology","tag-helaman","tag-jesus","tag-lightning","tag-seismology","tag-storm","tag-tempest","tag-thunder","tag-volcano","tag-whirlwind"],"yoast_head":"\nGeology and Third Nephi (6): Storms and Tempests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I've begun to publish a short series of notes mostly extracted from an article written by a longtime friend of mine, the Latter-day Saint\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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