A cataclysmal catastrophe of biblical proportions may have wiped out the ancient “ city of sin ” mention in the Christian Bible .
Located in modern - day Jordan Valley , in the Book of Genesis , it come that the two notoriously sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by “ sulphur and fire ” because of their wickedness . Now , a squad of researcher with more than a decade of archeologic excavation body of work in the Holy Landsaythere may be some verity to the biblical story after all . Presenting their work at the yearly confluence of theAmerican Schools of Oriental Research , they say an airburst do by a meteor explosion in the atmosphere outright obliterated a civilization encompassing a 25 - km - wide ( 15.5 miles ) region .
“ We ’re unearthing the magnanimous Bronze Age site in the region , probably the internet site of scriptural Sodom itself , ” says the excavation squad on itswebsite .
Analyses of Tall el - Hamman , located just northeast of the Dead Sea , suggest the area was occupied continuously for 2,500 years before suddenly collapsing at the final stage of the Bronze Age . Radiocarbon dating show mud - brick wall of almost every complex body part disappeared 3,700 class ago , leaving behind just their stone foundations . out layer of pottery also show signs of thawing – Zircon crystal found in the coating would have been formed within 1 second at high temperatures perchance as hot as the surface of the Sun . If that is n’t apocalyptic enough for you , then picture the mellow - force play winds creditworthy for creating flyspeck mineral grain raining down through the sky , which were also found on pottery throughout the web site .
It gets worse . The “ high heating explosion ” not only wiped out “ 100 percent of the Middle Bronze Age cities and townsfolk , ” but also strip farming soils from once - fat theater of operations as seawater from the Dead Sea common salt pushed over the land , rendering it useless for an estimated six centuries .
Ground surveys indicate more than 100 other small settlement in the area were also exposed to the calamity , killing the estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people that lived there .
Such an event has pass off in recent history . More than a 100 ago , a blow near the Stony Tunguska River in Siberia flattened 2,000 straightforward kilometre ( 772 straight mil ) . A want of crater found here suggests a meteor exploded between 5 and 10 kilometers ( 3 - 6 mi ) above the land . A similar plosion in 2013 occurred over Chelyabinsk Russia , wound more than 1,600 masses mainly from glass that irrupt from nearby windows .
