Around 3,600 years ago, the city of Tall el-Hammam, located in what is now Jordan, was instantly destroyed by a massive fireball from a meteor explosion in the sky, known as a "cosmic airburst."
In 1650 B.C., the inhabitants of Tall el-Hammam in present-day Jordan witnessed a meteor illuminate the skies in a spectacle unlike anything they had ever seen before. The impact was a thousand times stronger than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima, generating temperatures of 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The city was instantly flattened, and no survivors remained.
Now, a new study suggests that this catastrophic event may have served as the inspiration for the Biblical narrative of Sodom and its fiery destruction.
Although none of Tall el-Hammam's 8,000 residents survived to recount the event, experts speculate that individuals in neighboring regions observed the explosion and disseminated accounts of its devastation through oral tradition. According to The Conversation, these narratives eventually evolved into a written form that found its way into the Bible.
Published in the Scientific Reports journal, the study concluded that neither volcanic eruptions nor earthquakes could account for the molten metals and ceramics unearthed at Tall el-Hammam over the past 15 years. Such materials would have required significantly higher temperatures to liquefy—temperatures achievable only through a meteoric explosion, also known as a "cosmic airburst."
While documenting the events of 3,600 years ago may seem daunting, study co-author James Kennett focused on tangible evidence. This approach led him and his team to examine the molten glass and metals buried in five feet of scorched earth.
"We saw evidence for temperatures greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius (or 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit)," Kennett explained.
He and his colleagues believe that a meteor exploding into a fireball approximately 2.5 miles above the Earth would have been more than sufficient to engulf the entire city in flames. Clothing and wood would have been consumed instantly, while metals, mud bricks, and pottery would have boiled and melted. Meanwhile, individuals at the scene would have been blinded and torn apart by a fireball and shockwave traveling at 740 miles per hour.
Such unparalleled devastation, the researchers argue, could have easily inspired the apocalyptic tales found in early religious texts.
"We present evidence that in 1650 B.C.E., a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea," the study stated. "There is an ongoing debate as to whether Tall el-Hammam could be the Biblical city of Sodom."
Upon further analysis, it became evident that few events in recorded history could rival the cosmic airburst at Tall el-Hammam.
Utilizing data from known meteoric impacts and nuclear detonations in history, the researchers employed an impact calculator to gauge the extent of destruction at Tall el-Hammam compared to similarly devastated sites worldwide. These included events such as the Tunguska event in Russia in 1908 and the comet impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Ultimately, questions still linger. However, what is certain is that the area was devastated after the event, with Tall el-Hammam and over 100 other settlements deserted for centuries.
Some theorize that the elevated salt levels in the soil, caused by the meteor, rendered the land unfit for agriculture, leading to the abandonment of the area.
In the end, it seems entirely plausible that this catastrophic event profoundly impacted the inhabitants of the region, leading to the transmission of the story for generations—and continues to send shivers down spines to this day.
