The Sumerian word for salt also described the vapor rising from the salt marshes. She was turned into a pillar of vapor makes more sense.
Lots of the Bible has misleading statements like this due to translation errors.
In my younger days (in the 50s) I read a story in Saturday Evening Post or similar in the dentist's waiting room. The archaeologists were headed into town late in the day after excavations somewhere around the Dead Sea. During their explorations that week they had found a beautiful life sized white statue of a woman and had loaded her into the back of their pickup truck. They found a place to eat & while they were occupied there, a heavy rainstorm came up. After it was over, they went back out & found that their statue was gone.
Anyone remember the SciFi short story about two guys stealing a statue, seemingly made of alabaster, which they were transporting in the back of a lorry with a canvas top? The statue was of a young woman, vaguely Mediterranean or Semitic in appearance, who was looking back over her left shoulder in apprehension & sorrow. As they drove on through the rain that night they discussed who the sculptor might be, what the status was worth and the best way to “fence” it.
When they stopped the next morning and cheeked the back of the lorry, the statue was completely gone. The tailgate was still latched. All that was left was about 6 inches of water sloshing in the truck bed, having leaked through the ragged canvas tarp. For some unknown reason, the driver stuck his finger in the water and then into his mouth....SALTY!