Researchers find 3,600-year-old evidence that ancient city of Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by 'cosmic airburst,' which may have inspired Bible story of destruction of Sodom
Researchers have discovered 3,600-year-old evidence that the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by a 'cosmic airburst,' which may have inspired the Biblical story of destruction of Sodom, according to a new study.
Experts from around the world, including UC Santa Barbara, uncovered pottery shards that had their outer surfaces melted into glass, 'bubbled' mudbrick and partially melted building material in a 5-foot thick burn layer in the Jordan Valley.
These are indications of an anomalously high-temperature event, which the researchers say was 'larger than the 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia and significantly hotter than anything that the technology of the time could produce.
Researchers have discovered 3,600-year-old evidence that the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam was destroyed by a 'cosmic impact,' which may have inspired Bible story of destruction of Sodom
Experts uncovered pottery shards that had their outer surfaces melted into glass, 'bubbled' mudbrick and partially melted building material in a 5-foot thick burn layer
Melted pottery (a and b) while (c) shows a 6-cm wide potsherd storage jar from the lower tall, displaying an unaltered inner surface, and (d) the highly vesicular outer surface
Experts uncovered pottery shards that had their outer surfaces melted into glass, 'bubbled' mudbrick and partially melted building material in a 5-foot thick burn layer
'We saw evidence for temperatures greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius,' said one of the study's co-authors, James Kennett, in a statement.
Kennett likened the explosion to the Tunguska Event, a roughly 12-megaton airburst that occurred in 1908, when a 56-60-meter meteor pierced the Earth's atmosphere over the Eastern Siberian Taiga.
The researchers likened the explosion to the Tunguska Event (overlayed on top of Tall el-Hamman), a roughly 12-megaton airburst that occurred in 1908, when a 56-60-meter meteor pierced the Earth's atmosphere over the Eastern Siberian Taiga
