So, is it possible that Lot's wife was the rebel rouser and sole cause of the crowd because she was searching out enough salt to make bomb material? Or because she was going to her neighbors because she felt fearful of these two strangers her husband had drug home?
This would certainly seem more reasonable than the stories that have been promoted by foot rolling evangelists! A crowd of homosexuals wanting to gang bang angels is really a stretch and there is nothing in the scriptures or historical antedotes that supports this. I propose that many of these lies have been used to throw people into argument rather than searching deeper for what really took place.
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I have probably been flagged by DHS in trying to research explosives to answer this question!
From what I have found, we all probably have an arsenal in our homes in cleaning products.
Salt and sulfur are common materials used in many types of explosives.
The maji from the mystery schools were most likely trained in chemistry of the day. Applied chemistry begain about 4000 BC in Egypt.
From the "amazing bible discoveries" website comes this information:
Lab anaylsis of samples from the ruins of sodom and gomorrah reveal two major components: -ash and elemental sulfur. Also rocks with sulfur deposit and charcoal. Further tests indicate the ash to be limestone ( calcium carbonate), the sulfur in the ash is from powdered sulfur balls, not sulfate.
According to the chemist conducting the analysis, these sulfur balls are rare and also peculiar for the area of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Like other researchers, he concurs that the Dead Sea was probably formed by the catastrophe.
Lab analysis shown and explained: http://www.biblediscoveries.com/content/view/32/48/
Scriptures portray the fiery judgement came from a skyward direction and implies that the burning mass originated from above the surface of the plain. However, gaseous material could errupt high into the air from within the crust of the earth if perhaps a fault or fissure were ignited.
Sulfur occurs in natural gas and petroleum crudes; it is also a component of black gunpowder.
Asphalt contains a high percentage of sulfur and we have already been given information in scripture of the numerous asphat tar pits in the valley of Siddim. Perhaps the catalyst (s) were placed in strategic locations(s) to ignite these natural deposits of tar and crude oil.
According to Biblical Archeology website, the Dead Sea is situated on an enormous fault line known as the Great Rift Valley.
Could explosives have been lodged within a fissure to produce both a quake and erruption?
Sulfur reacts with oxygen and absorbs water to form sulphuric acid with evolution of huge heat as Gibbs free energy. The intensity and corrosiveness of the fire mixture increases the explosiveness.
Sulfur combustion and emission is to the environment like venom of a snake bit. It also produces acid rain which kills enriching bacterias and organic matter rendering the soil infertile. Truly, it does become "a wasteland forever".
Further evidence that points to a controlled explosion is revealed by the falling level of the Dead Sea. Shrinkage of the surface area has exposed bizarre fissures as "almost architecturally articulated rock fissures". The unnatural event formed a crust of rock salt so hard that modern technology struggles to penetrate it with drilling.
I have found no corroborating evidence of nuclear radioactive materials being used, nor of the radioactivity in that area. The quote in previous post, cited from Bibliotecapleyades originated from material by Sitchin which can be found at (www. tribes.tribe.net..) and deals with, imho, a lot of far fetched propositions.
However, the radioactivity is plausible from causes other than nuclear explosives. Most radionuclides in groundwater result from interactions with rocks. Radium 226, 228, and 224 indicates large mobilization of radium from aquifer rocks. There is a big problem with radioactive water in Jordan and much has been written about this.
