Tyler Livingston, recently named President of
Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum, showed me a new book a few days ago. I immediately purchased a copy, read it, and wrote a favorable review on Amazon. The book is entitled
Geology of the Book of Mormon by Jerry D. Grover, Jr., PE, PG.
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| Important New Book |
Grover is both a geologist and an engineer. 222 pages of lavishly illustrated text are followed by 122 bibliographic refererences, one of which is this blog, and a 3 page index. The real glory of the book, though, are the 91 striking visuals, many of them from online sources. The cover features images of Popocatepetl, the most active volcano in Mexico, from the Mixtec Codex Vindobonensis C, aka Mexicanus I, and from the Toltec-Chicimec Codex Rios, aka Vaticanus A. The impressive cover photo is of a Chilean volcano that erupted in 2011. John L. Sorenson's son, Curtis, prepared the splendid maps in
Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013). Grover worked with Curtis to enhance some of John's maps and figures 1 - 5, 82, 85, and 87 in
Geology are either direct copies or adaptations of maps from
Mormon's Codex.
Seasoned professionals reading the Book of Mormon
in light of their expertise often find exciting insights. See the blog article
BMAF 2014 for discoveries Wade Miller made when he engaged the text based on his experience as a geologist and paleontologist. Miller's
Science and the Book of Mormon (Laguna Niguel: KCT & Associates, 2010) explores fauna in pre-columbian Mesoamerica. See the blog article "
The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon" for another book I highly recommend. It contains insights Jack Welch gleaned through decades of experience in Biblical Law. The Book of Mormon has material enough for specialists in dozens of disciplines to study it in depth.
Ben L. Olsen worked in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize as a petroleum geologist for Shell Oil Co. After taking a Book of Mormon tour with Joe Allen, Olsen wrote a small piece entitled "Some Thoughts Regarding Geology and the Book of Mormon." Bart J. Kowallis wrote an article entitled "
In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist's View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi" that appeared in
BYU Studies 37:3, 1997. In 55 pages he summarizes evidence from Papua, New Guinean oral traditions, an Egyptian stela ca. 1,500 B.C., and modern earth sciences to explain 3 Nephi 8-10 as an explosive volcanic eruption similar to
Tambora (1815
Volcanic Explosivity Index - 7) or
Krakatoa (1883 VEI - 6). That prompted Benjamin R. Jordan to write the short article "
Many Great and Notable Cities were Sunk: Liquefaction in the Book of Mormon" that appeared in
BYU Studies 38:3, 1999 where he describes a natural phenomenon that can sink coastal cities even without a tsunami.
None of these previous geological overviews approaches the depth or scope of Grover's work.
Geology of the Book of Mormon attempts not only to explain the natural disasters the Nephites described but also to help identify Book of Mormon cities based on the location of Mesoamerican tectonic plates, volcanoes, fault lines and hurricane tracks.
This image from NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center shows the major tectonic plate boundaries that heavily influence volcanic and seismic activity on the planet.
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| Global Plate Tectonic Boundaries |
The Book of Mormon area in Mesoamerica has a triple junction of the North American, Caribbean and Cocos Plates.
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| North American, Caribbean and Cocos Plates Junction |
In Mexico and Guatemala the North American and Caribbean Plate boundary is known as the Cuilco- Chixoy-Polochic Fault. Slippage along this fault has created an east-west line of steep mountains we correlate with the narrow strip of wilderness in
Alma 22:27. See the blog article "
The Narrow Strip of Wilderness."
