All language subtitles for The Universe s08e03 Heavenly Destruction.eng

Male narrator: Sodom and
Gomorrah, a tale of two cities

incinerated by a hail of fire
and brimstone.

Is this a fantastic fable, or
could it be a near apocalyptic

disaster from space?

Think about your worst atomic
nightmare striking at just the wrong time.

Narrator: Newly discovered
evidence might hold the secrets

to one of the Bible's greatest
mysteries.

If you find an artifact that
looks similar to trinitite, then

we know it has to be an highly
energetic event.

Science always said, "Well,
you can't test the Bible."

- No, you can test the Bible.
Narrator: - Could a natural

disaster be responsible for the
destruction of Sodom and

Gomorrah?
Ancient mysteries shrouded in

the shadows of time.
Now, can they finally be solved

by looking to the heavens?
The truth is up there, hidden

among the stars, in a place we
call the universe.

Sync and corrections by n17t01
www.addic7ed.com

Sodom and Gomorrah, a chilling
saga of the Sin Cities in the

ancient world.

Sodom and Gomorrah is
one of the most sensational

stories that tells us about sex,
violence, greed, and divine

wrath and punishment.

Narrator: According to the
Old Testament's book of Genesis,

the citizens of Sodom and
Gomorrah are said to be so

wicked... that God destroys them

with fire and brimstone from the
heavens.

In ancient times, the skies
were where the heavens are,

where the gods are.

And so in a sense these were
messages from the gods of some

impending doom or disaster.

Narrator: Is this a biblical
parable about the price of sin,

or might the story be based on a
real-life disaster--

a literal fire from the sky?

The Bible tells of events
where we're now realizing can be

matched up with historical
events that we can go back and verify.

Narrator: Archaeologists,
astronomers, and biblical

scholars have spent years trying
to uncover any truth to this

age-old tale. Now modern science reveals
that the story might have been an

actual asteroid impact event.

If you were lucky enough, or
perhaps unlucky enough

to actually see a meteor
entering the atmosphere,

breaking into pieces, perhaps
causing a wave to sweep over

you, of air, as its pressure
passed by, that is a story you

- would not forget.
- Ancient peoples may not have

connected it to our modern
astronomical knowledge the way

we do of a population of
asteroids, but I think the idea

of rocks falling from the sky is
probably something I'm sure the

ancient peoples must've been
aware of.

Narrator: Asteroids are
chunks of rock, metals, and dust

that are the leftover material
from the formation of the solar system.

Many of them are no more than a

few feet across...
but some are the size of moons.

The majority of them circulate
around our Sun, between Mars and

Jupiter.
However, occasionally, they're

nudged out of their orbit and
head on a collision course with Earth.

A small fraction of the objects that hit
the Earth are made out of iron and nickel

metal, very strong, and actually
make a pretty nice crater on the

surface of the Earth.
The most common asteroids that

fall on the Earth are the stony
asteroids.

They literally have the
composition of stone.

Like a-- like any rock you'd pick
up here on the surface of the

Earth.
Some of these very weak rocky

objects never actually can make
it to the surface of the Earth.

Narrator: Weaker stony
asteroids often explode when

striking the Earth's atmosphere,
creating a cosmic airburst.

A cosmic airburst is when an
asteroid or a comet hits the

atmosphere and essentially
disintegrates.

It explodes, because the
atmosphere feels like a brick

wall to this rapidly oncoming
asteroid or comet.

The atmosphere itself is enough
of a block to explode this thing.

Narrator: How might one of these asteroids
produce the destruction of Sodom and

Gomorrah as described in the
biblical texts?

_

What sort of devastation
would an iron asteroid

produce... as opposed to
a stony cosmic rock?

To demonstrate that, we're
gonna actually use two different

firearms here to examine the
effects of these types of

impacts.
I've got a rather powerful rifle

here, an M1 Garand.
And we're gonna fire a single,

intact projectile that's gonna
represent one of our larger,

more strong asteroids.
And then, to talk about a

smaller, weaker asteroid, I've
got a Remington 870 shotgun

here and a shotgun round with
the birdshot in the shell.

And that's gonna represent one
of the smaller, weaker

asteroids, which has fragmented
in the-- in the atmosphere.

And we're gonna see the effects
then of what sort of blast that

might create in our pile of
sand.

Narrator: The .30 caliber
single projectile is loaded into

the rifle and fired.

- That's a good crater.
Narrator: - Next, the birdshot

is discharged from the shotgun.

Okay, let's see what we have
here.

This is perfect.
We have our rifle shot here,

representing our large, strong
asteroid...

which made it to the surface
of the ground, to make

an impact crater.
We've dug out, just to show you

here the typical size of the
impacter.

The crater being several times
larger than the asteroid itself.

To the side, here, we see the
result from our shotgun blast.

Our small, weak asteroid, which
fragmented in the atmosphere

and the debris from the blast,
the heat pulse, that results in

some destruction.
And so it's a good illustration

of the two different types of
impact.

Narrator: A large iron
asteroid could have flattened

Sodom and Gomorrah...
and left a crater, while a

weaker, stony asteroid would
have shattered in the

atmosphere...
but might have

generated enough fiery debris to
incinerate the Sin Cities.

To figure out if one of these
cosmic impact scenarios is

correct...
archaeologists first

need to prove if and where the
biblical sites actually existed.

Well, there's a very ancient
belief that there were once

cities down around the Dead Sea
that are no longer there and

that what happened to those
cities was something fell out

of the sky and smashed them.

Narrator: Clues about Sodom
and Gomorrah first appear in the

book of Genesis, Chapter 13.
The biblical text tells the

story of Lot, a shepherd and
nephew of Abraham, the patriarch

of the Bible.
Lot parts ways with his uncle

in search of more land for his
sheep.

Abraham and Lot stand on a
mountaintop, northwest of

Jericho, and look down at the
ancient land of Canaan.

Today, it's the region
surrounding the Dead Sea, the

salt-laden lake separating
Israel and Jordan.

When Abraham and Lot looked
down to the east, into the

Jordan Valley, they look into
what is described as the "Kikar"

of the Jordan.

Now, "Kikar" is a Hebrew word
that can mean a circular disc.

And certainly from a
geographical standpoint, that

area of the Jordan plain just
north of the dead sea does

widen out into kind of a disc.

Narrator: The Bible says that
Lot pitches his tent toward

Sodom, one of a cluster of five
settlements called "The cities

of the plain."
They include Gomorrah, Adman,

Zeboim, and Zoar.

And it's said in Genesis
that the plain of the Jordan was

well-watered.
And to this day, that plain is

still well-watered.
And so that pins it down

geographically.
That's to the north.

Narrator: Archaeologists
scour the region northeast of

the Dead Sea.
They discover the eerie remains

of 14 ancient sites.
Tall El-Hammam, the largest of

the ruins, most closely fits the
biblical description of Sodom.

Covering nearly 100 acres, the
city was once fortified with

40-foot stone walls, massive
city gates, and a maze of

streets lined with mud
structures.

Tall El-Hammam is the largest
site in that entire area, which

would make one think, if it's
Sodom, then being such a large

- site, it would fit that.
Narrator: - Tall El-Hammam was

also most likely a wealthy city,
which ties it to the biblical story.

According to Genesis, two angels

disguised as men come to warn
Lot of God's impending wrath.

Lot invites them into his home
and feeds them.

But the other men of the city
offer no hospitality and

instead demand to have sex with
the visitors.

The sin of Sodom is actually
unknown in the Bible.

The story has been interpreted
that it is the sin of sexuality.

Most biblical scholars, however,
say the actual sin of Sodom and

Gomorrah deals with hospitality
and the lack of hospitality.

Typically, nomads were much more
hospitable than people that

- lived in the cities.
- The prophet Ezekiel, writing

later in the Old Testament, he
says the people in Sodom had too

much to eat, and they were
heartless, and they didn't take

care of poor people.
That's what he says is wrong

- with them.
Narrator: - Lot, the only

hospitable man in Sodom, is
allowed to flee the city, along

with his wife and daughters.
But they're warned to never look

- back.
- "Don't look back," is saying,

in other words, "Look, don't you
understand you got in trouble by

pitching your tents toward
Sodom?

When you get out, I don't want
you looking towards Sodom."

Narrator: While Lot and his
family head for the mountains...

fire and brimstone rains down on
Sodom.

Lot's wife disobeys the
forewarning.

She stares back at the inferno
and turns into a pillar of salt.

Is this passage merely a moral
metaphor?

Or might it have a literal
meaning that helps connect the

story to this location in the
Middle East?

All along the shores of the
Dead Sea are encrusted salt

formations and sculptures that
actually look like people.

There is a pillar that, if you
look up, you can see the figure

of a woman.
This is one of the ideas for

Lot's wife turning into a pillar
of salt story.

Narrator: So these salt
pillars provide further evidence

that Sodom and Gomorrah might've
been located near the Dead Sea.

But can the asteroid impact
theory explain how a person

could appear to turn into a
pillar of salt?

And if Tall El-Hammam is indeed
the biblical city of Sodom, do

the sands of time conceal
evidence of a firestorm from space?

Narrator: Sodom and Gomorrah,
two biblical cities destroyed by

fire and brimstone.
Is this a cautionary tale, or

are these actual cities that
fall victim to a cosmic disaster

of biblical proportions,
an asteroid impact?

Science's job is supposed to
investigate reality and truth.

And they always said, "Well, you
can't test the Bible."

No, you can test the Bible.

Narrator: Archaeologists dig
for the truth among the ruins of

Tall El-Hammam, located over
eight miles northeast of the

Dead Sea.
The ancient city appears to fit

the biblical description of
Sodom.

Excavators dig down through the
layers of dirt to what some

believe is the approximate time
period of Abraham and Lot,

between 1750 and 1650 BC, the
Middle Bronze Age.

A spade suddenly hits a
four-foot layer of spongy ash.

It's evidence that the city
experienced some sort of sudden,

fiery catastrophe.

The archaeologist who comes
up with a nice, sulfur-laden

burn level is beginning to
convince me that he's dealing

with the right place...

if it's down in the area where
Sodom and Gomorrah might've been.

Narrator: Within the sooty

layer, archaeologists unearth a
few human bones, violently mixed

among smashed mud bricks and
stones.

There were a few bones.
The bones were jumbled and

hyperextended and twisted.
It looked kind of ghastly.

And the bones were charred.
The dramatic thing is, after its

destruction, it's not reoccupied
again until the Iron Age, which

- occurs 500 years later.
Narrator: - What could have

caused such a massive inferno
that rendered the city

uninhabitable for generations?
Evidence of fire spawns new

theories.
Some think the city was

destroyed by a volcanic
eruption.

However, there's no evidence of
volcanism in the region.

Others suspect a massive
earthquake might have triggered

oil fires.
Or perhaps an enemy sacked the

- city and set it ablaze.
- We're talking about heat that

vaporizes things.
The gas fire is not gonna reach

the temperatures that we're
talkin' about.

Narrator: While sifting
through the sand, archaeologists

stumble upon something else
quite unexpected-- pottery shards

bearing a mysterious layer of
greenish glaze.

The discovery is baffling.
The glazing of pottery isn't

invented until over 800 years
after the alleged time period of

- Sodom.
- I have looked at pottery from

Tall El-Hammam that had a
coating of greenish glaze on it,

despite the fact that glazing as
a surface treatment was not

common in that region until the
Middle Ages.

So being on such an early piece
of pottery, the feeling was is

that it has to come from some
other cause.

Narrator: The glaze on the
pottery shards appears to have

been produced by extreme heat at
over 3,000 degrees fahrenheit

and then quickly cooled.

The whole point is that it
has to be a very high

temperature burn.
Not just a normal fire burn

here, but something stronger
than that.

Narrator: The glazing on the
pottery bears a striking

resemblance to trinitite, the
glass produced by the first

atomic bomb tests at the Trinity
site in New Mexico in 1945.

In an airburst event, what
happens is you get a fireball

that makes a big bubble.

This bubble then collapses upon
itself, and that's how you get

the stem.

And what happens is, is all the
material, all the dirt that's

thrown up into that stem then
gets entrapped into the

fireball.
And that material just simply

melts as droplets and falls
back down.

And that's how you got the
trinitite.

These are examples of rocks we
found down at Trinity site.

Here's a standard piece of
trinitite that has the nice,

shiny surface on top.
And in this particular case, it

has the beaded bottom.
So the-- all these little beads

dropped out of the sky first,
and the shiny top here is a

glomeration of all the beads
that were still melted.

Narrator: Similar glass has
been found in the Sahara desert

in Libya...
but its formation

predates the atomic age by
almost 30 million years.

Here's a natural example of a
type of glass that was formed in

the Libyan desert during an
airburst event, we think, some

30 million years ago.

Think of the intense heating it
took to turn desert sand into

- this glassy material.
- There were no nuclear bombs

then, so the only conclusion
that can produce that kind of

power and more is a cosmic
impact.

Narrator: No impact crater is
found in the entire region of

the Middle East... so the only
other thing that could produce

such staggeringly high
temperatures would be an

asteroid that explodes in the
Earth's atmosphere...

a cosmic airburst.

[Explosion]

The temperatures inside the
center of one of these airbursts

are incredibly high.

Much more immense than, for
example, the temperature of a

volcano or even, like, an oil
fire, which may only reach a few

thousand degrees.

Narrator: So could a cosmic airburst
have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah?

Let's demonstrate the power

of an airburst event with a
simple, homemade experiment, here.

I've just made a little vortex cannon.

It's a-- just a plastic bucket

with a hole in the-- in the end
here to blast some air out of.

We're gonna use this plastic
diaphragm on the back to

actually move the air.
And this is gonna basically show

us the power of-- of moving air.
To make this a little easier to

see, we're gonna fill this with
a bit of smoke.

Okay, there we go.
Okay, let's see if we can blow

down our wall of cups here.

Excellent.
So when I pop the back diaphragm

here...
we can actually move a lot

of air out of the hole.
So that shows the power of

moving air.
Imagine now an actual airburst

event, where you've got megatons
worth of blast energy going on,

and, instead of blowing down a
wall of paper cups, we could

blow down an actual wall of mud
bricks, uh, maybe the walls of

a fortified city.
And so real airburst events,

coupled with the intense heat
from the fireball and from the

hot, turbulent gases near the
surface, might well be capable

- of firing pottery.
Narrator: - In addition to

glazed pottery shards, glassy
material resembling actual

trinitite also has been
discovered at the site of Tall El-Hammam.

The pieces need to be

scientifically analyzed, but
could they confirm that the city

was destroyed by a cosmic
airburst event?

If you were looking anywhere
in the world for either cosmic

impact or airburst, you would
look for material that looked

similar to this, the trinitite.
This is a very nice piece that

shows the really nice, deep,
green structure.

These are examples of what I
call taffy-like material, thrown

out immediately from the blast.
So all trinitite does not look

the same.
If you find an artifact that has

material on it that looks
similar to trinitite, then we

know it has to be an highly
energetic event, like an

asteroid.

Narrator: The atomic bomb
tests of 1945 demonstrate that

an asteroid airburst has the
capability of generating

tremendous heat and energy.
But is there any real proof that

this type of cosmic event
produced the devastation

described in the story of Sodom
and Gomorrah?

The answer to this mystery lies
in one of the most remote places

on Earth.

Narrator: Sodom and Gomorrah.
Did these ancient cities suffer

the wrath of God or a cosmic
cataclysm?

Archaeological evidence points
to 14 ruined cities northeast of

the Dead Sea.
One of the sites,

Tall El-Hammam, bears the
unmistakable signs of a thermal

catastrophe--
a thick ash layer,

charred human bones,
and possibly trinitite, a

glassy material only produced by
extremely high temperatures,

such as a nuclear blast or an
asteroid that explodes in the

- atmosphere.
- The airburst is basically

like exploding a bomb up in the
air...

and you have a shockwave that
propagates with huge speeds, and

then can be extremely
devastating.

Narrator: But what are the
odds that this could happen on Earth?

Over the last 100 years, Earth

experiences two major cosmic
airburst events.

In 1908, a 200-foot-wide
asteroid explodes in the sky

above Siberia's Tunguska
wilderness.

You got to think, these
things are coming into the

atmosphere at something like
Mach 60, right?

And that pressure was too much
for that object to take.

And it detonated in the
atmosphere with the explosive

energy of something like two or
three megatons.

Narrator: Most of the rock
disintegrates upon entering the

Earth's atmosphere, so it
doesn't leave a crater.

But it releases heat and
shockwaves... which topple

80 million trees over an
800-square mile region.

The Tunguska event is a great
example of a devastating

airburst.
Something like that,

traveling at tens of thousands
of miles per hour, when it

explodes, it creates this big
shockwave.

In the case of the Tunguska, it
happened over a forest, and you

see this tremendous impact wave
that flattened these trees like

- little toothpicks.
Narrator: - No one is killed or

injured as a result of the
Tunguska event because it

occurs over a desolate forest.
But this isn't the case the next

time Russia experiences a cosmic
attack.

On February 15th, 2013, a
50-foot asteroid explodes over

the city of Chelyabinsk with
almost 30 times the energy

released from the Hiroshima
atomic bomb.

The amazing thing about the
Chelyabinsk event is that it was

so beautifully documented.

There are hundreds of video
cameras, dash cams, photographs,

cell phones, so we're able to
really analyze how destructive

it truly was.

Almost two minutes after the
actual sighting, a huge sonic

boom was unleashed and broke
windows, injured about 1,500

people, primarily from broken
glass.

- It was just very damaging.
Narrator: - The events in

Tunguska and Chelyabinsk are
tangible evidence that a cosmic

airburst could have decimated
Sodom and Gomorrah.

A Tunguska event occurring
over a mud-and-stick city in the

second millennium BC would
have completely annihilated it.

The buildings back then weren't
very strong.

They could easily fall apart.
All kinds of fires could erupt

from the heat generated.

There would be nothing left.

Narrator: Such a cosmic event
can even explain the fire and

brimstone mentioned in the
biblical story.

Now the translation that
brings us brimstone simply

meant, "Yellow fire, yellow
light."

So really, at the very minimum,
what we can interpret about

this is that a bright yellow
fire rained down upon Sodom.

That could easily be a meteor
passing through the atmosphere,

leaving behind a trail of smoke
and fire in its wake.

When this raining down effect
occurs, then you see all these

particles that are just beet red
from the heat until they

finally coalesce and land on
the ground.

From somebody way back in time,
seeing this, they would think

that would be an act of God.
We know today that that's

probably an asteroid impact or
something like that.

Narrator: If a cosmic
airburst destroyed Sodom

and Gomorrah, it might also
explain another curious line

from the biblical text, which
says...

_

As far as the Sodom and
Gomorrah story, it's entirely

plausible that what they saw was
essentially a mushroom cloud.

And that mushroom cloud would've
looked like a big smokestack,

much like what the nuclear bombs
look like when they go off.

A lot of energy gets
deposited in a very short amount

of time.
That lifts debris from the

ground.
Moreover, everything catches on

fire, creating more smoke and
ash.

Yeah, you would have had a huge
pillar rising from these cities.

Narrator: A cosmic airburst
event could have destroyed Tall

El-Hammam and the other sites
northeast of the Dead Sea.

But is this the actual location
of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Narrator: The fiery
apocalypse of Sodom and

Gomorrah--
fiction or factual account of a

natural disaster from space?
The charred ruins of an ancient

city over eight miles northeast
of the Dead Sea fit the

geographical and physical
description of Sodom.

The discovery of strange glazed
pottery and desert glass...

indicates that an asteroid
might have destroyed the ancient site.

It would have been absolutely
devastating, and certainly the

stories of the destruction like
that propagate through time,

even to modern times today.

Narrator: According to the
biblical story, as fire and

brimstone rains down on Sodom,
Lot and his family flee to the

mountains near Zoar, one of the
five cities of the plain, that

is spared God's divine
destruction.

According to the biblical narrative,
Zoar was not destroyed.

In fact, lot escapes to that
city as a refuge.

Which would indicate that the
city would have to be somewhere

- in close proximity to Sodom.
Narrator: - Zoar should be a

relatively short distance from
Tall El-Hammam, the alleged site

of Sodom.
However, on the floor of a

Byzantine church in Madaba,
Jordan, is a sixth century

mosaic map written in Greek.
It's the oldest surviving

depiction of the Holy Land.

What's fascinating about this
map is it gives us the

geographical locations of major
Christian pilgrimage cities.

So we can take the map as being
an accurate map of the ancient

- Near East.
Narrator: - By comparing the

mosaic map to the modern-day
landscape, it places Jerusalem

and Jericho in the precise
locations that they are today.

Sodom and Gomorrah are oddly
missing from the eroded mosaic.

However, Zoar is found on the
map near the southeast region

of the Dead Sea... and over
30 miles from the site of

- Tall El-Hammam.
- The location of the city of

Zoar on the Madaba map-- it is
not exactly a smoking gun to

tell us where the other cities
are, but it gives us a general

- locale in which to look.
Narrator: - And the mystery

deepens.
On the mosaic map near Zoar are

the Greek words, "Sanctuary Of
Saint L",

the rest of the word is
missing, but many scholars

interpret it as the "Sanctuary
Of Saint Lot."

By following the mosaic map,
archaeologists find the

Sanctuary of Saint Lot
perched on a mountainside.

Hidden behind the monastery is a
cave.

Could this be the place where
Lot and his family took refuge

- during the firestorm?
- In the cave behind the church

that is associated with Saint
Lot, they found Bronze Age

pottery.
However, there's nothing

evidence that says this is the
place where Lot and his

daughters stayed.
But we do have evidence of them

living there at a certain time
period that correlates with the

- story of Lot.
Narrator: - The discovery leads

many to believe the real Sodom
must exist nearby.

Less than ten miles from the
Sanctuary of Saint Lot,

archaeologists discover the
ruins of Bab Edh-Dhra, a

fortified early Bronze Age city,
once occupied by

1,000 inhabitants.
A short distance from Bab

Edh-Dhra, archaeologists uncover
the remains of four settlements

which could be the other lost
cities of the plain.

In the early Bronze Age, the
third millennium BC, precisely

in this area, you have five
cities...

whereas Tall El-Hammam is
located in a cluster of middle

Bronze Age settlements, of which
there are many more than five.

So if we're speaking of five
cities of the plain, then Bab

Edh-Dhra and the associated
four cities towards the south

- would really fit that very well.
- Like the ruins at Tall

El-Hammam, a thick layer of ash
covers much of Bab Edh-Dhra.

It suggests the ancient city
also suffered a violent end.

Eight miles to the south of Bab
Edh-Dhra, archaeologists find

the ruins of Numeira, which is
thought to be its sister city.

They find a substantial ash
layer and skeletal remains of

humans who suffered severe
trauma.

Could Bab Edh-Dhra and Numeira
be Sodom and Gomorrah?

The problem here is that both
of the cities were destroyed at

different time periods, at least
300 years apart.

The city of Numeira was
destroyed in a great

destruction, very rapidly.
We know that from an ash layer.

As opposed to Bab Edh-Dhra, the
city was destroyed over

100 years or so, so the dates
don't match up.

In order to make the story work,
they both have to be destroyed

in the same manner at the same
time.

Narrator: There's not enough
evidence to prove that Bab

Edh-Dhra and Numeira are Sodom
and Gomorrah.

But what about Tall El-Hammam
and the other ruins northeast of

the Dead Sea?
Does the alleged location of

Zoar on the mosaic map rule them
out as the Sin Cities?

People who make maps have to
make decisions when sometimes

the archaeological or the
historical evidence is not

conclusive.

So they did a lot of guessing,
frankly.

You're not gonna find a sign
that says, "This is Zoar," or,

- "Welcome to Zoar."
Narrator: - There's still much

debate about the actual location
of Sodom and Gomorrah...

but science can now provide a
terrifying picture of what might

have actually happened to the
ill-fated cities.

It can even decode the mystery
behind Lot's wife turning into a

pillar of salt.

Narrator: Sodom and Gomorrah--
myth or astronomical

mega-disaster?
In the search for the truth,

archaeologists discover a
cluster of ruins in two

different locations along the
eastern side of the Dead Sea.

They've even found undeniable
evidence that a fiery

catastrophe destroyed most of
the ancient cities in both

locations.
But is either of these sites

home to the real Sodom and
Gomorrah?

All along the shores of the
Dead Sea, there is a possibility

that there are a number of sites
that we have not yet found.

Sodom and Gomorrah could be
anywhere.

Some people say the cities are
under the Dead Sea.

Though we don't have any solid
archaeological evidence of Sodom

and Gomorrah, it had to be an
important event.

Narrator: 21st century
astronomy, combined with the

biblical accounts, now offer a
scientific explanation for what

might have happened to the
cities in their final hours.

Between 2300 and 1700 BC...

an asteroid barrels down from space.

It strikes the Earth's atmosphere...
and explodes above

the ancient land of Canaan.
The force is over 200 times more

powerful than the Hiroshima
atomic bomb.

For the airburst hypothesis
for the destruction of Sodom,

we're talking dozens of megatons
of energy.

In modern context, we have-- you
know, we have an understanding

of that.
But in ancient times, that

would have been literally a
biblical event.

Narrator: The energy from the
airburst reaches the ground,

creating a mushroom cloud of
rock and dirt that's ejected

into the atmosphere.

If it's an airburst, you're
gonna have possibly either many

pieces of the rock raining down.

And so you'd imagine that those
things would cause tremendous

devastation and many fires on
the ground.

Narrator: The citizens of
Sodom take cover as fiery rock,

or brimstone, rains down on
their city.

Ancient city walls made out
of mud bricks would easily have

been blown flat.
Straw or thatched wood

construction charred.
Literally brought to the point

of spontaneous ignition by the
heating of the event.

The shockwave from the impact
would have flattened buildings.

This could have led to huge
destruction of these ancient,

- poorly-built cities.
- You could have vaporization

of bodies.
At the very least, they would be

incinerated.
They would be cremated.

So it would be a absolutely
terrifying event.

Narrator: Lot and his
daughters flee for the

mountains...
but his wife lags behind

as she stares back at
the ferocious inferno.

One of the most famous tales
to come out of the Sodom and

Gomorrah story is the story of
Lot's wife being turned into a

pillar of salt.
Could an airburst event in any

way be responsible for that?
It's kind of gruesome to think

about, but that might
potentially be not salt but

- maybe charred to ash.
- If Lot's wife had been

unprotected, not in a cave or
something, then she could have

been charred to a crisp.
So in a sense, metaphorically,

she could have become like a
pillar of salt.

It's kind of a gruesome idea, but she
could have been incinerated.

Narrator: The cosmic disaster
does more than destroy Sodom and

Gomorrah and the other cities of
the plain.

It scorches the landscape,
making it uninhabitable for

- hundreds of years.
- If one of these ancient

cities like Tall El-Hammam was
destroyed by, let's say, an

asteroid, it would be left
uninhabited, perhaps as a

superstition, but they couldn't
possibly live there.

Narrator: The science of the
universe gives us a new way of

- looking at an ancient story.
- If we can demonstrate,

historically and scientifically,
that there really was a Sodom

and that these events really
took place, and therefore what

the Bible describes are real
historical events, it gives us a

greater sense of security and
certainty that the rest of the

Bible is valid.
And so I think this also plays

very much into the modern
interest in these two cities.

We have enough science to
actually try to understand some

of the historical origins of our
faiths.

And this, to me, is only to
enrich our culture as a species

and our creativity as the real
core of our humanity.

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