The only natural process left is a cosmic impact. Together, all this evidence shows that temperatures in the city rose higher than those of volcanoes, warfare and normal city fires. In addition, the surfaces of the pottery and meltglass are speckled with tiny melted metallic grains, including iridium with a melting point of 4,435 F (2,466 C), platinum that melts at 3,215 F (1,768 C) and zirconium silicate at 2,800 F (1,540 C). Called spherules, they are made of vaporized iron and sand that melted at about 2,900 F (1,590 C). The destruction layer also contains tiny balls of melted material smaller than airborne dust particles. Spherules made of melted sand (upper left), palace plaster (upper right) and melted metal (bottom two). Our research revealed a remarkably broad array of evidence. Now we needed proof of what happened that day at Tall el-Hammam. It would have been a much smaller version of the giant miles-wide rock that pushed the dinosaurs into extinction 65 million ago. It appears that the culprit at Tall el-Hammam was a small asteroid similar to the one that knocked down 80 million trees in Tunguska, Russia in 1908. Built by impact experts, this calculator allows researchers to estimate the many details of a cosmic impact event, based on known impact events and nuclear detonations. To figure out what could, our group used the Online Impact Calculator to model scenarios that fit the evidence. None of them are capable of melting metal, mudbricks and pottery. No one was exactly sure what had happened, but that layer wasn’t caused by a volcano, earthquake or warfare. Researchers stand near the ruins of ancient walls, with the destruction layer about midway down each exposed wall. This dark band came to be called the destruction layer. It was obvious that an intense firestorm had destroyed this city long ago. Years ago, when archaeologists looked out over excavations of the ruined city, they could see a dark, roughly 5-foot-thick (1.5 m) jumbled layer of charcoal, ash, melted mudbricks and melted pottery. Here’s how we built up this picture of devastation in the past. When our group finally published the evidence recently in the journal Scientific Reports, the 21 co-authors included archaeologists, geologists, geochemists, geomorphologists, mineralogists, paleobotanists, sedimentologists, cosmic-impact experts and medical doctors.
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It also involved detailed analyses of excavated material by more than two dozen scientists in 10 states in the U.S., as well as Canada and the Czech Republic. Getting answers required nearly 15 years of painstaking excavations by hundreds of people. Now called Tall el-Hammam, the city is located about 7 miles northeast of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan. Jericho’s walls came tumbling down and the city burned to the ground. None of the 8,000 people or any animals within the city survived – their bodies were torn apart and their bones blasted into small fragments.Ībout a minute later, 14 miles (22 km) to the west of Tall el-Hammam, winds from the blast hit the biblical city of Jericho. They sheared off the top 40 feet (12 m) of the 4-story palace and blew the jumbled debris into the next valley. The deadly winds ripped through the city, demolishing every building. Moving at about 740 mph (1,200 kph), it was more powerful than the worst tornado ever recorded.
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Some seconds later, a massive shockwave smashed into the city. Almost immediately, the entire city was on fire. Swords, spears, mudbricks and pottery began to melt. Clothing and wood immediately burst into flames. Air temperatures rapidly rose above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). The shocked city dwellers who stared at it were blinded instantly.
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The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph).įlashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground.