[pyinstallwoes]

Could it be the result of a weapon? I know this is on the edge of absurd but to let the possibility entertain the mind wouldn't a laser or some payload from space "glass" an area on the ground? I've never thought about people turning into salt before... it seems possible?

[scroy]

I think it's best to use Occam's razor on that one. But it would be great for an episode of Stargate.

[pyinstallwoes]

Sometimes "aliens did it" makes more sense than a lot of the imaginative narrative that somehow explains 15 billion years in confidence of certainty. But yeah, I get your drift indeed.