So did Sodom really exist? Many archaeologists think it did, in Israel somewhere around the southern edge of the Dead Sea

But the explanation that provides the most likely historical and geological context for the legendary destruction is a massive earthquake.

The Dead Sea, part of the enormous geological fault line known as the Great Rift Valley, has been the epicenter of powerful earthquakes for countless millennia. Indeed, geologist Amos Frumkin believes that an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale gave rise to both the Sodom and Gomorrah tradition as well as the story surrounding the Mt. Sedom salt pillar (known as Lot’s Wife) some 4,000 years ago.

Other scholars have proposed that the earthquake caused the narrow isthmus between the northern and southern Dead Sea basins to give way, which in turn flooded the southern “Valley of Siddim”

 

 

 

Another theory claims an asteroid did it.