Potentially Active Volcanoes Have Been Found on Venus

The volcano Maat Mons on Venus is shown in this computer generated three-dimensional perspective of the planet's surface, based on data from the Magellan mission. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech.

POSTED ON MARCH 16, 2023 BY NANCY ATKINSON

Using archival radar images taken in the 1990s by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, scientists have found evidence of recent active volcanism on Venus. The images revealed a volcanic vent that changed shape and increased significantly in size over an eight-month period.

The scientists say their findings confirm long-held suspicions that the planet, which is known to have a very geologically young surface and evidence of past volcanic eruptions, is still active today.

“We made the discovery in the most likely place that there should have been new volcanism,” said Robert Herrick, a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, speaking at a briefing on March 15, 2023 from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas. “Extrapolating from a data set of one for an entire planet could be dangerous, but most scientists would say it’s pretty good evidence that being able to catch an eruption in an eight-month time frame means that others are taking place as well. It confirms there is modern geological activity on Venus.”



Topography and radar image of the Study area on Venus. Color indicates elevations, measured relative to the mean planetary radius from gridded Magellan altimetry. X and Y axis are planetary longitude and latitude. The background greyscale image is Cycle 1 east-looking SAR images. The black rectangle indicates the area of change. Credit: Robert Herrick and Scott Hensley/Science.

For the research Herrick teamed up with Scott Hensley, a radar scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to analyze full-resolution radar images captured by Magellan. They focused on an area containing two of Venus’ largest volcanoes, Ozza Mons and Maat Mons. This area has long been thought to be volcanically active, however there has been no direct evidence of recent activity.

More:
https://www.universetoday.com/160579/potentially-active-volcanoes-have-been-found-on-venus/