Volcanoes

 Geologists who analyze the destruction described in 3 Nephi 8 generally conclude that it was caused by a combination of seismic and volcanic activity. See for example Bart J. Kowallis, "In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist's View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi" in BYU Studies 37:3 (1997-98) and Jerry D. Grover, Jr. Geology of the Book of Mormon Provo: Grover Publishing (2015). This explanation of the cataclysms described in the text works well with a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon since southern Mexico and Central America have dozens of volcanoes, many of them active in Nephite times.

Some of the Many Volcanoes in Mesoamerica

These verses in the Bible seem to be referring to volcanoes:

• Exodus 19:18 "and the smoke thereof (Mt. Sinai) ascended as the smoke of a furnace..."
• Deuteronomy 4:11 "the mountain burned with fire...with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness."
• Deuteronomy 5:23 "the mountain did burn with fire."
• Psalms 97:5 "the hills melted like wax."
• Psalms 104:32 "he toucheth the hills and they smoke."
• Micah 1:4 "and the mountains shall be molten under him...as the waters that are poured down a steep place."
• Revelation 8:8 "a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea."

And these verses in the Book of Mormon likewise seem to be referring to volcanoes:

• 1 Nephi 19:11 "mountains which shall be carried up."
• 2 Nephi 26:5 "mountains shall cover them."
• Helaman 14:23 "many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great."
• 3 Nephi 8:10 "the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, and in the place of the city there became a great mountain."

The term "volcano" does not appear in the Book of Mormon, but it is highly likely that volcanoes were present in the Nephite and Lamanite area.

Paricutin Volcano in Michoacan, Mexico

Paricutin achieved global fame in 1943 when it erupted in what had been a corn field and quickly formed a cinder cone. The volcanic explosion spread ash over an area of 200 square kilometers.

Heap Mounds and Tower Pyramids

People ask "If the Book of Mormon happened in Mesoamerica, why does the text not contain the word 'pyramid' since stepped pyramids were ubiquitous anciently in the region?" Actually, the text does describe stepped pyramids. It calls them 'towers.' The term 'tower' appears 30 times in the Book of Mormon. How do we know that a tower in Nephite and Jaredite parlance was a stepped pyramid? Because 9 of the 30 instances of 'tower' in the text refer to the famous Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:3-5) which almost everyone recognizes was based on a Mesopotamian ziggurat or stepped pyramid.

Great Ziggurat of Ur, Southern Iraq

Stepped pyramids were built in many places around the world. Some of the more famous that can be visited today include:

• Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico
• Candi Sukuh, Mount Lawu, Indonesia
• Caracol, Belize
• Chogha Zanbil, Iran
• Djosser, Saqqara, Egypt
• El Castillo, Yucatan, Mexico
• Great Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq
• Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico
• Tikal, Guatemala

Tikal Temple 1, Guatemala

Since the Bible and the Book of Mormon both call a Mesopotamian stepped pyramid a "tower" as in Mosiah 28:17 we can be quite certain that Nephites and Lamanites would have called the very similar Mesoamerican stepped pyramids "towers" as in Alma 48:1. In this verse, Lamanite towers were clearly dominant urban structures.

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Does the term 'mound' appear in the Book of Mormon? No. But the word 'heap' or a variant does 7 times in contexts that precisely match what we know of mortuary tumuli or surface earthworks worldwide. See for example, Alma 2:38, Alma 16:11, Alma 28:11, Alma 50:1, Mormon 2:15, Ether 10:23 and Ether 11:6. See the blog article "Mounds" for additional information on the global distribution of the simple structures the Book of Mormon text calls "heaps."

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We would expect to find Book of Mormon lands in a region such as Mesoamerica that has both towers and heaps.

El Pital, Veracruz, Mexico

Coastal El Pital is one of many sites in Mesoamerica that combine stepped stone pyramids with earthen burial mounds. 

Tamtoc, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Huastec Tamtoc is another.