A . . . careful reading makes it obvious that the basic geography of the Book of Mormon land was not changed after the destruction and that there were cities, especially around the land of Bountiful, that were probably not severely damaged. \u00a0(169)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Professor Kowallis believes that \u201cthe land\u201d that is referred to in these passages is the land of the Nephites \u2014 not the entirety of North and South America but an area that extends only a few hundred miles in length and width. \u00a0It is, in other words, a limited geography. \u00a0A close reading of the text forces us to regard it as a relatively small area, and only a relatively small area is consistent with what we know about geology.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the changes could well have been stunningly dramatic.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Kowallis finds parallels to the account in 3 Nephi in other reminiscences of explosive volcanic eruptions, both ancient and modern. \u00a0Here, for example, is the Roman author Pliny the Younger describing his reaction to seeing the landscape after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
At last the darkness thinned and dispersed into smoke or cloud; then there was genuine daylight, and the sun actually shone out, but yellowish as it is during an eclipse. \u00a0We were terrified to see everything changed, buried deep in ashes like snowdrifts. \u00a0(Quoted on page 171)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pompeii was still south of Rome and north of Sicily. \u00a0The Bay of Naples was still there. \u00a0The Alps and the Apennines hadn\u2019t changed locations. \u00a0But things looked starkly different, nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And here are two descriptions of the devastated landscape after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Within minutes . . . the upper Toutle River Valley below St. Helens was a barren landscape of total desolation. \u00a0A 156-square-mile swath extending northwest from the volcano lay devastated.<\/span><\/p>\nA billion board feet of timber were blown down; animals were buried in ash or roasted by gases; and scores of persons were dead or missing. . . . \u00a0[The local resident] Harry Truman, his lodge and all of Spirit Lake disappeared in a cataclysmic cauldron. \u00a0The once-rounded mountain top was shorter by 1,300 feet, and a mile-deep horseshoe of hell was gouged out of the north side. \u00a0(Quoted on page 171)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
They call the land an alien moonscape, a blighted badlands. \u00a0President Carter flew over it in late May and called it \u201cindescribable.\u201d \u00a0Dirty rivulets seem to flow uphill as they wind through the bizarre terrain. . . . \u00a0At ground zero in the hellish landscape is what is left of Mount St. Helens. \u00a0It sits like a resting monster. \u00a0\u00a0(Quoted on page 171)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be continued.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly \u2014 today, entirely \u2014 from\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 points out, quite correctly in my judgment, that we would be wrong to read 3 […]<\/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":[1341,8834,56,8841,8844,8529,8520,1356,1353,8526,8556,1350,4640,8838,1050,1369,8837,8831,1347,3838,8825,8828,3178,8531,8822],"class_list":["post-83409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-3-nephi","tag-bart","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-burial","tag-buried","tag-cataclysm","tag-catastrophe","tag-christ","tag-destruction","tag-devastation","tag-drought","tag-earthquake","tag-fire","tag-flood","tag-geology","tag-jesus","tag-kowallis","tag-lightning","tag-seismology","tag-storm","tag-tempest","tag-thunder","tag-volcanism","tag-volcano","tag-whirlwind"],"yoast_head":"\n
Geology and Third Nephi (12): "Whole Face of Land Changed" (Part One)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geology and Third Nephi (12): "Whole Face of Land Changed" (Part One)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-08T04:33:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-08T05:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html\",\"name\":\"Geology and Third Nephi (12): \\\"Whole Face of Land Changed\\\" (Part One)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-08T04:33:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-08T05:37:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Geology and Third Nephi (12): “Whole Face of Land Changed” (Part One)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Geology and Third Nephi (12): \"Whole Face of Land Changed\" (Part One)","description":" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Geology and Third Nephi (12): \"Whole Face of Land Changed\" (Part One)","og_description":" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2020-03-08T04:33:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-08T05:37:23+00:00","author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html","name":"Geology and Third Nephi (12): \"Whole Face of Land Changed\" (Part One)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-03-08T04:33:30+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-08T05:37:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" I'm plugging on, posting another set of notes drawn mostly -- today, entirely -- from\u00a0Bart J. Kowallis, \u201cIn the Thirty and Fourth Year: A","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/geology-and-third-nephi-12-whole-face-of-land-changed-part-one.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Geology and Third Nephi (12): “Whole Face of Land Changed” (Part One)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/03\/Volc%C3%A1n_de_San_Miguel.jpeg\")
<\/a>