Airburst hypothesis: shallow aerial explosion over Dead Sea

Researchers interpret the destruction at Tell el-Hammam as an airburst event — a cosmic object exploding in the atmosphere rather than striking the ground directly. The event came in shallow over the north end of the Dead Sea, vaporizing millions of gallons of water and salt. The destruction matrix contains high salt content consistent with Dead Sea evaporation, and the event footprint is comparable to the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia. A 2025 paper on Science Direct proposes this extraterrestrial airburst as the cause of this Bronze Age catastrophe.