Biblical Description of Mt. Sinai and Volcanic Activity
EXO 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly....20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

JDG 5:5 The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

PSA 68:8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Above, we have read how the Bible clearly tells of how God's Presence at Mt. Sinai caused the earth to shake and smoke, much like volcanic activity. And several men in the past have recognized this fact. Charles Beke, in the last century, was convinced that Mt. Sinai had to have been a volcano. He travelled to the Sinai Peninsula, hoping to find the exact mountain by finding one which displayed volcanic evidences. But, he came away disappointed because he found that not only was the traditional site non-volcanic, the other mountains in the Sinai were also non-volcanic! 

He then travelled to NW Arabia where he discovered that all down this western side were "harras", or vast lava and ash fields. Whether the area of Mt. Sinai/Horeb was volcanic, or whether God's Presence resulted in the volcanic-like activity doesn't really matter. The Biblical description speaks of events which would result in the area having experienced these things- and the "consuming fire" of God's Presence would leave an indelible mark on the mountain.

Local Traditions of Moses and Jethro in NW Arabia

Also importantly, the few explorers of this region found the NW area of Arabia (Midian) to have a vast array of local traditions about Moses and Jethro in the area, as H. St. John Philby writes of his extensive exploration of the area in his "The Land of Midian", p. 222: 

"From here my guide and I climed up the cliff to visit the `circles of Jethro' on the summit of Musalla ridge, from which we climbed down quite easily to our camp on the far side....A cairn marked the spot where Jethro is supposed to have prayed, and all round it are numerous circles,..."

Charles Doughtery traveled the entire area and in his chronicles of his journey, "Travels in Arabia Deserta", he writes of:  

"...a tradition amongst their [the inhabitants of this NW Arabian region] ancestors that `very anciently they occupied all that country about Maan, where also Moses fed the flocks of Jethro the Prophet.'"

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