In 1970 Russell Blong began collecting legends of a massive volcanic eruption off the coast of northeastern Papua New Guinea. There is no historical account of that eruption, but the legends of that eruption bear remarkable similarity to the descriptions of the events at the time of the arrival of the Messiah in the Book of Mormon.
“I am going to tell the story of darkness. I am going to tell the story of the great darkness which appeared on this ground/area. I did not see it. People told me and so I know it.
It was while they were asleep, in the night, that it was so dark on this earth, and they slept/lay for about three nights. And when they took flares and went up the hills and made signs, going with flares in the pitch blackness, they said: Can you see my flare? But the flares did not light up the place! So they said: No!
This went on many times. And when they were sleepy and it would have been night they slept. And when it should have been light they woke and got up, and kept looking and looking and lit flares and went up the hills saying; Do you see my flare? And others said: Do you see? And they looked all around. But they didn’t see them.” (Bart J. Kowallis. “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi.” BYU Studies. 37, no. 3, 1997-98, pp. 137).
The three days of darkness is the most obvious connection between the legendary tale and the Book of Mormon record. Each is related to the reality of the aftermath of the explosion and the ash that fills the air.
Of course a difference is in the ability of the wood to be lit at all, though after three hundred years of legend, we can’t tell if the torches were lit, or were in the story to emphasize the darkness. In any case, the inability to light the wood indicates that there was a concentration of volcanic gases (carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide) that prevented ignition. 3 Nephi 10:13 suggests that there were those who died from suffocation, and the classical record of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius notes that Pliny the Younger’s uncle died of suffocation subsequent to the eruption (Russell H. Ball. “An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of Darkness among the Nephites.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 1993, 2:1).
Verse 21 notes that they had “exceeding dry wood.” This is yet another indication that the tempest and storm were related to volcanic eruption rather than a tropical storm or hurricane. Each of those would be accompanied by rain, and the rain would have precluded the “dry wood,” let alone, the “exceeding.” (Bart J. Kowallis. “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi.” BYU Studies. 37, no. 3, 1997-98, pp. 153).