[kuschku]

Considering the impact threw up a massive amount of salt, which in turn coated the surrounding landscape and is still measurable today, the "pillar of salt" might just be a description for "so much salt fell from the sky that she was covered in it".

[dane-pgp]

Genesis chapter 19 verse 26 simply says "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.", which maybe indicates someone being in such a state of shock that they just refused to move on, as the salt covered them.

I'm not a psychologist, but I could imagine such an event causing what we would now call PTSD, and maybe triggering catatonia or similar symptoms.

[smoyer]

That's an explanation I hadn't considered and the dead sea certainly shows how the area has collected salt.

[p_l]

The abandonment of the region for approx. 600 years is judged as caused by hypersalinity preventing growing of crops till natural leaching lowered salt content of the soil.