Most of California, for example, was being fomed tectonically...under water, though is pretty fertile today, but for politics.
Religiously? Same essential argument but for God.
Susan M. Gaines, et al, Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal About Earth History. Pretty good book detailing, among other things, how molecules in crude oil have been traced back to the organisms that preceeded their incorporation into sediments.
Interesting....
While the Bible Speaks of Israel the Middle East the rest of the world existed, what was happening say in the lands of California, Mexico, Antartica and New York could be factors of the Ancient World we are just starting now to understand......