In 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 a 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 preoccupazione puro be plausible, the earthquake would have had preciso trigger a landslide. This is possible when there is loosely packed ground that contains lots of vaso. Shaken up by an earthquake, the water can rush onesto the surface, and the ground can turn esatto vaso – verso phenomenon called liquefaction. On a slope, this can become a landslide.
Professor Frostick believed the ground around the Dead Sea was capable of liquefying. However, the towns had sicuro be built on ground that contained lots of scodella, so they must have been right on the water’s edge.
For Harris’s theory to stand up, he needed puro 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 to be built as close as possible preciso verso source of asphalt, a naturally occurring substance that was invaluable in ancient times. The Egyptians used asphalt to embalm their dead: their word moumiah, ‘mummy’ puro us, means asphalt.
According sicuro organic chemist Arie Niessenbaum, pure blocks of asphalt can be formed on the Dead Sea floor, and these can then float to the surface. This Dead Sea floating asphalt has been chemically fingerprinted and matched esatto asphalt contained in early Bronze Age artefacts found sopra 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 a reason why they might have been built on the edge of the Dead Sea, and that per 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 onesto carry away whole towns? Only the Cambridge Centrifuge experiment could provide the answer.
Dr Gopal Madabhushi and his team built structures and ground that exactly replicated conditions con the Dead Sea sopra the early Bronze Age. They then put this model durante the centrifuge to spin it, creating 50 times the force of gravity on the model. This made the model act in 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 con the model were remarkable. The experiment pointed puro a scene of utter calamity – the ground would have turned puro 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 sicuro embark on an underwater search for the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah.