Venus is a geologically active world today, a new study suggests.
Researchers have identified three dozen features in Venus which were probably created by volcanism in the very recent past, potentially reshaping our understanding of the infernally hot planet and its evolution.
“This is the first time that we can point to specific structures and say, ‘Look, this is not an ancient volcano, but one that is active today, perhaps inactive, but not dead,'” study co-author Laurent Montési, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland, said in a statement. “This study significantly changes Venus’s view of a mostly dormant planet to one whose interior is still agitated and can fuel many active volcanoes.”
Related: Pictures of Venus, the mysterious planet next door
Scientists have long known that Venus remained active long after other rocky planets like Mercury and Mars lost their geological mojo. The second rock from the sun has far fewer craters than those two worlds, a count that is consistent with a global resurfacing event some 500 to 700 million years ago. (The other inner rocky planet in our solar system, Earth, is still extremely active today, of course.)
But recently, evidence has accumulated that the volcanic activity of Venus continued much later in the planet’s history: maybe even to this day. And the new study reinforces that view.
The researchers, led by geophysicist Anna Gülcher of ETH Zürich in Switzerland, used computer simulations to model in unprecedented detail the formation and evolution of Venus’s ring-shaped volcanic structures, which are called coronae.
“The improved degree of realism in these models compared to previous studies makes it possible to identify various stages in the evolution of the crown and define the diagnostic geological characteristics present only in currently active crowns,” said Montési.
The team then used this knowledge to search for young crowns in images of the surface of Venus captured by spacecraft like NASA’s. Magellan probe, which orbited the planet from 1990 to 1994.
“We can say that at least 37 crowns have been active recently,” said Montési.
The crowns of Venus are generated by columns of molten rock that rise from the mantle up through the crust, a process similar to the one that formed the Hawaiian islands here on Earth. (However, most of the volcanism on our planet occurs along the boundaries of tectonic plates, which modern Venus does not appear to possess.)
The 37 young crowns are clustered in a few regions of Venus, Gülcher and colleagues found. These areas “may serve as interesting targets for detailed investigation of future spacecraft missions,” the researchers wrote in the new study, which was published online today (July 20) in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
