Boys wash themselves after floating in the Dead Sea, June 18, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

i24 News – A new study presents evidence that a “cosmic airburst” destroyed the Middle Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, located in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea.

The 21 co-authors of the study, published Monday in the journal Nature, speculate that the 3,600-year-old cataclysmic event could have inspired the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible records God’s destruction of the cities for their wickedness.

The researchers propose that the explosion was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, when an air burst of a stony meteoroid about 50 to 60 meters (160 to 200 feet) in size caused a massive 12 megaton blast.

The archaeologists and other researchers involved in the study conclude that the airburst hypothesis would make Tall el-Hammam the second oldest known city or town to have been possibly destroyed by an airburst after Abu Hureyra, Syria, which might have been hit by a comet 12,800 years ago.

The authors warn that cosmic events are expected to recur every few thousand years, saying that “although the risk is low, the potential damage is exceedingly high, putting Earth’s cities at risk and encouraging mitigation strategies.”