What The Geologists Can Tell Us

Soundings taken in the Dead Sea have revealed the extraordinary shape of this basin. According to work carried out by geographers of the Near East the bottom of the Dead Sea appears to be divided into two clearly defined parts (as can be seen on the diagram below, the Dead Sea after 1850 B.C.). Beside a very large chasm about forty-eight miles long and running to a depth of 1311 feet, to the south, a much smaller and far shallower basin may be observed. Now this part lying only some fifty to sixty-five feet below the waters corresponds exactly to the region mentioned in the Scriptures, the valley of Siddim and the region of the accursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Note. Dotted lines indicate the wadis which flow only intermittently at the rainy season. Figures indicate the depth of the water in metres.

 

THE DEAD SEA

Some figures

 Dimensions of the Dead Sea: north to south, 53 miles long, widest point, 10 miles; area 340 square miles.

The level of the Dead Sea, according to the seasonal variation, is between 1290 and 1293 feet below the Mediterranean.

The deepest points reach a depth of 1311 feet.

On the diagram opposite it will be observed that to the south of the Lisan peninsula the depth is almost insignificant; 18 feet at the narrowest point, 10 to 12 feet in that sort of southern pool in which the Scriptures locates the catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah.

(see explanatory maps below)

The Dead Sea is one of the water areas richest in salt in the whole world: a proportion of 242.6 per 1000. The density of the water varies according to depth between 1.160 to 1.230. No fish or living thing can exist in this saturated salt solution.

Nearly seven million tons of water per day from the Yordan and a further seven million from other streams flow into the Dead Sea, but the very high rate of evaporation compensates for this.

 

The various names of the Dead Sea

The Scriptures usually calls it yam hammelah, salt sea or sea of salt. Sometimes, too, sea of solitude or sea of the plain. In contrast to the Mediterranean it is also called oriental sea.

In the Talmuds we find the names, Sea of Salt, or Sea of Sodom.

Josephus, the Jewish historian (about A.D. 37-100), calls it 'Asphalt lake (on account of the asphalt contained in it) and also lake of Sodom!

It was the Greeks, followed in this by the Latins, who called it the Dead Sea.

In the thirteenth century of our era the Arab geographer Idresi called it the Sea (or lake) of Za'ra (Zoar); he adds that it also bears the name of lake of Sadum (Sodom) and of Ghamura (Gomorrah).

For Islamic Arabs the Dead Sea is known under the name of the Sea of Lot as in the Koran Mohammed recounted the dramatic story of Abraham's nephew, miraculously saved from the seismic catastrophe.

 

Section of the Mediterranean as far as the mountains of Moab, passing through the Dead Sea.

In addition, in this southern part of the Dead Sea, known to ancient times as the Salt Sea, an observer in a boat a short distance from the shore when the sun's rays are at a certain angle can perceive submerged forests covered with a thick deposit of salt, which had ensured the preservation of the trunks and main branches of the trees. These skeletons of vegetable life appear to date from a remote period. Thus it seems that in this place a real subsidence occurred and the vegetation crystallized in salt under the water, so preserving the evidence of a former forested and probably agricultural region. There was no certainty of this, of course, but at least a strong presumption that it had happened in this way.

The necessary scientific proof was finally furnished, it seems, by the American geologist Jack Finegan who in 1951 drew up a very interesting report at the conclusion of his investigations conducted on the spot: 'It appears that it was in about 1900 B.C. that there occurred the great cataclysm which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. A study of all the literary, geological and archaeological evidence leads to the conclusion that the cities of the plain (Bereshith 19:25) were located in a region at present covered by the waters which gradually invaded the southern part of the Dead Sea, and that their destruction resulted from a serious earthquake, probably combined with an explosion, lightning and the escape of natural gas and widespread fire. (See below, the diagrams of the Dead Sea before 1900 B.C. and after 1900 B.C.) It is quite usual, indeed, for a subsidence, whether gradual or sudden, to produce faults allowing the escape of magmatic substances.

It should be added that this series of subsidence continued afterwards. The city of Zoar, in which Lot took refuge after his hurried departure from Sodom, suffered a further and very serious earthquake at the time of the Roman occupation; subsequently a part of the city was battered to pieces by the waves of the Dead Sea. This small urban centre, rebuilt a short time afterwards on the hillside, was inhabited until the Middle Ages.

Quite a short visit to the site would convince the most decided skeptic that an earthquake could have taken place. The underground fire in the vicinity, the hot springs, the sulphurous vapour given off by certain hollows, the bituminous wells, mentioned in the Scriptures, the crystals of salt covering the rocks, the blocks of salt scattered over the countryside, all show clearly the volcanic nature of this region. And finally there is the presence of this inland sea, called the Asphalt Lake with its viscous, sticky, salt-laden water in which the human body cannot sink and where no fish, shell fish or water plant is to be found. It is the Dead Sea in a dead land, and a visible token of the ever latent geological accident. The Scriptural version of the disappearance of the valley of Siddim beneath the waters of the Dead Sea accompanied by the destruction of the cities (showing clearly the effects of an earthquake shock) can therefore be accepted as historically possible, since it is so clearly authenticated by the geographical data of the site.

In the anecdote of Lot's wife transformed into a pillar of salt for her disobedient curiosity we may perhaps perceive the memory of some tragic accident which has been embroidered upon in the popular imagination. To the west of the southern portion of the Dead Sea, over a distance of some twenty-five miles, runs a small chain of mountains almost exclusively made up of crystals of salt, gleaming in the sunlight like diamonds. A great number of the salt blocks have been hewn and carved by the rain and have assumed odd forms; from a distance some of them could be taken for human shapes.

Explanatory maps of the subsidence of the Plain of Siddim, presumed sites of Sodom and Gomorrah.

At this date the waters of the Dead Sea had not yet invaded the Plain of Siddim where stood Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, the cities accursed for their wickedness.

 

The Dead Sea After The Catastrophe Of 1850 B.C. (Section And Plan).

At this date the subsidence of the valley of Siddim was brought about by an earthquake. Although the bottom of the Dead Sea is about 1300 feet below the surface, the depth of the later part, over the former plain of Siddim varies between about ten and eighteen feet.

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