A Scientific Look at the Cataclysm in
3 Nephi 8

From INSIGHTS (FARMS Newsletter) August 1998.

As a sign of the Savior's crucifixion, a three-hour cataclysm in the Americas erased entire cities, enshrouded the land in three days of darkness, and transformed "the face of the whole earth" (3 Nephi 8:17). Thanks to an illuminating study by a BYU geologist, certain anomalous aspects of that massive destruction now are understood better than ever before.

In a recent article titled "In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist's View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi" (BYU Studies 37/3 [1997-98]), . . . Bart J. Kowallis contends that each of the destructive forces Nephi describes–the terrible storms, thunder, lightning, whirlwinds, shaking of the earth, flooding, fires, burying of cities, and rending and scattering of rocks–probably emanated from a single geologic event: an explosive volcanic eruption. A cataclysm of this kind would explain the seemingly unprecedented duration, magnitude, and simultaneous onslaught of the multiple disasters, as well as such curious details as the palpable darkness and the "exceedingly dry wood" (8:21) that would not kindle fire.

Kowallis, who heads BYU's geology department, shows that Nephi's catalog of destructive events squares on all counts with scientific fact and many eyewitness accounts of similar devastation wreaked by explosive volcanic eruptions throughout history. Such eruptions occur at continental "hot spots" and at subduction zones (where the earth's tectonic, or crustal, plates collide and buckle) when viscous magma plugs a volcano's vent and enormous pressure builds until the mountain collapses or blows its top. Significantly, an extremely active volcanic belt passes through southern Mexico and Central America, the area that many LDS scholars agree is most likely the heartland of Book of Mormon events.

Whereas even large tectonic earthquakes last at most a few minutes, violent volcanic eruptions typically are preceded by frequent earthquakes and explosions as the vents gradually become cleared of debris. Nephi's report of constant shaking for three hours is a reasonable amount of time for the initial stages of a volcanic eruption. Although a major volcanic eruption can transform landscapes over vast areas–a scenario described by Nephi–Kowallis notes that available geologic evidence, as well as a careful reading of the Book of Mormon, challenges the interpretation that the great destruction affected the whole earth or reshaped all of the Western Hemisphere. Rather, he argues, Nephi obviously was referring to his whole earth, or the geographically restricted area inhabited by Book of Mormon peoples.

A striking feature of Kowallis's study is its many eyewitness reports of explosive volcanic eruptions. These detailed excerpts support Nephi's account of a barrage of destructive forces unleashed simultaneously For example, an exploding volcano releases an enormous, dense, fast-moving "blast cloud" of superheated gases and even hotter ash that rolls down the mountain and outward along the ground for miles, obliterating everything in its path. Balls of lightning and other curious electrical phenomena, along with fierce windstorms, thunder, quaking, and rending noises, accompany the tumult.

The firsthand descriptions of such searing maelstroms observed during the eruptions of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Java's Krakatoa in 1883, and Martinique's Mount Pelée in 1902 are stunning. Of the latter eruption, a witness on board a ship approaching the St. Pierre harbor reported: "I saw St. Pierre . . . blotted out by one great flash of fire. Nearly 40,000 people were killed at once. . . . The side of the volcano was ripped out, and there hurled straight towards us a solid wall of flame . . . that swept off masts and smokestacks . . , and shriveled and set fire to everything it touched." The terrific whirlwinds and dry storms caused by explosive volcanic eruptions may account for the dry wood noted in 3 Nephi 8:21 and observed as a result of the Krakatoa eruption. That fires could not be lit may have been due to a heavy fall of ash or to suffocating gases.

Kowallis concludes that the 3 Nephi account is "remarkable for its detail and accuracy . . . and would have been impossible for an uneducated man to have published in 1830," when "geology was a science still in its infancy."

This absorbing study is amply documented and enriched by more than a dozen dramatic photographs. Although the author stops short of linking geologic evidence of the cataclysm with specific Mesoamerican locations, he believes the evidence is there, awaiting discovery as further work fleshes out the geologic record contained in the earth's strata.