Per one place, there was per huge fault line caused by an ancient earthquake
Tubb believes the early Bronze Age is the only time that towns matching the description of Sodom and Gomorrah could have existed.
By measuring how far an individual layer slipped, Marco could measure the size of the earthquake. The slippage was one metre and 75cm – meaning an earthquake measuring at least per six, on the Richter scale.
An earthquake that big would have destroyed Bronze Age buildings – but it would have left ruins, not the utter destruction described by the Bible. For Harris’s intenzione preciso be plausible, the earthquake would have had sicuro trigger verso landslide. This is possible when there is loosely packed ground that contains lots of water. Shaken up by an earthquake, the ciotola can rush to the surface, and the ground can turn preciso water – a phenomenon called liquefaction. On a slope, this can become per landslide.
Professor Frostick believed the ground around the Dead Sea was trapu of liquefying. However, the towns had puro be built on ground that contained lots of chicchera, so they must have been right on the water’s edge.
For Harris’s theory to stand up, he needed preciso explain why towns like Sodom might have been built at the water’s edge. He believes the answer is that some towns might have needed sicuro be built as close as possible sicuro verso source of asphalt, verso naturally occurring substance that was invaluable con ancient times. The Egyptians used asphalt to embalm their dead: their word moumiah, ‘mummy’ esatto us, means asphalt.
According puro organic chemist Arie Niessenbaum, pure blocks of asphalt can be formed on the Dead Sea floor, and these can then float sicuro the surface. This Dead Sea floating asphalt has been chemically fingerprinted and matched sicuro asphalt contained in early Bronze Age artefacts found durante Egypt. That means there was an early Bronze Age trade sopra asphalt from the Dead Sea puro Egypt – and settlements may have existed where people collected it.
Liquefaction and destruction
After establishing that Sodom and Gomorrah may have been Bronze Age towns, that there was verso reason why they might have been built on the edge of the Dead Sea, and that verso strong ancient earthquake may have liquefied the ground, one important question remained. Would an earthquake of magnitude six have produced liquefaction that was powerful enough esatto carry away whole towns? Only the Cambridge Centrifuge experiment could provide the answer.
Dr Gopal Madabhushi and his squadra built structures and ground that exactly replicated conditions per the Dead Sea per the early Bronze Age. They then put this model sopra the centrifuge puro spin it, creating 50 times the force of gravity on the model. This made the model act mediante exactly the same way as if it were full size. The Cambridge equipe then ‘fired’ an earthquake of strength six. The results showed precisely what full-size buildings would have done after an earthquake of this magnitude.
The results picked up by sensors tavolo japan cupid per the model were remarkable. The experiment pointed preciso a scene of utter calamity – the ground would have turned onesto quicksand, with the houses sliding as far as they could until they reached the bottom of the Dead Sea.
The Cambridge experiment vindicated Harris, showing his sfondo could have happened: Sodom and Gomorrah could have been towns built on the edge of the Dead Sea, and could have been destroyed by earthquake and landslide.
When he saw the results, Harris was thrilled: ‘I’m absolutely delighted – sopra fact I’m ecstatic.’ He now hopes geologists and archaeologists will be inspired preciso embark on an underwater search for the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
