Venus, Long-Thought Dormant, Shows Signs of Volcanic Activity (nbcnews.com) 37
Scientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus that appear to be recently active -- and probably still are today -- painting the picture of a geologically dynamic planet and not a dormant world as long thought. NBC News reports: The research focused on ring-like structures called coronae, caused by an upwelling of hot rock from deep within the planet's interior, and provided compelling evidence of widespread recent tectonic and magma activity on Venus's surface, researchers said on Monday. Coronae are essentially fields of lava flows and major faults spanning a large circular area. Many of the 37 reside within in a gigantic ring in the planet's Southern Hemisphere, including a colossal corona called Artemis 1,300 miles (2,100 km) in diameter.
Many scientists long had thought Venus, lacking the plate tectonics that gradually reshape Earth's surface, was essentially dormant geologically for the past half billion years. The researchers determined the type of geological features that could exist only in a recently active corona - a telltale trench surrounding the structure. Then they scoured radar images of Venus from NASA's Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s to find coronae that fit the bill. Of 133 coronae examined, 37 appear to have been active in the past 2 million to 3 million years, a blink of the eye in geological time. The research has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Many scientists long had thought Venus, lacking the plate tectonics that gradually reshape Earth's surface, was essentially dormant geologically for the past half billion years. The researchers determined the type of geological features that could exist only in a recently active corona - a telltale trench surrounding the structure. Then they scoured radar images of Venus from NASA's Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s to find coronae that fit the bill. Of 133 coronae examined, 37 appear to have been active in the past 2 million to 3 million years, a blink of the eye in geological time. The research has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Not surprising (Score:3)
Given that Venus' athmosphere is so hot, it could almost melt rock.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were pockets where heat is trapped and the material has a liquidus temperature low enough to give you something equivalent to lava or like a glacier,
and would definitely check for tha, before assuming volcanoes.
(In other words: I would be interested in knowing more details for the current conclusion.)
News at 11 (Score:4, Funny)
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Not sure about that: Venus can't really keep you at arm's length, now can she?
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What about Uranus?
Occupy Venus! (Score:3)
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A couple of air conditioning units should do the trick.
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an apex engineering project if ever there is one
given the chemical content on the surface of venus
what would venus look like
Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
Only in the claim that everyone thought it inactive.
I thought I'd read it was accepted that the surface was replaced every seven years, which requires quite a bit of activity, and that no feature photographed by the Landers still existed.
Clearly not everyone thought it inactive. With two such opposing views, I'd need to see a survey of literature to know which view was more common and by how much.
Certainly I'm impressed by the science, nice piece of detective work. I've no problems with the science or the newness of discovering active volcanoes. Superb achievement.
It's the newness of that one non-Venusian conclusion that bothers me.
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
"I thought I'd read it was accepted that the surface was replaced every seven years, which requires quite a bit of activity, and that no feature photographed by the Landers still existed."
I can't imagine thats the case - the planet would have to be covered in permenantly active volcanos. Even Io doesn't get resurfaced that quickly and its the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
Also if no feature photographed by the landers still exists then by logical deduction it also means the landers no longer exist which would be a bit sad.
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Also if no feature photographed by the landers still exists then by logical deduction it also means the landers no longer exist which would be a bit sad.
I'm not sure how much would even be left of them regardless; they didn't remain operational for more than 2 hours, and apparently the pressure and temperature crushed and melted them.
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I thought I'd read it was accepted that the surface was replaced every seven years, which requires quite a bit of activity, and that no feature photographed by the Landers still existed.
Did we ever had two landers so close together that they could take a picture of the same feature? Or how would we know?
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You're right about the resurfacing, based on the shortage of meteor craters, but your time scale is way off, it's more like a billion or 2 years IIRC, with the possibility of multiple resurfacing events, which we'll never know for sure..
As for volcano-ism, I thought it was pretty well established there were active volcanoes on Venus, just based on atmospheric changes. Peaks of sulfur or such that then decrease.
Assuming Venus is similar to Earth in internal heat, it has to go somewhere.
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In my defence, the report I read was some time back (even I can't remember everything I read perfectly, dammit) and it may well be I remember correctly but that the report itself was wrong.
Still, your numbers sound much more likely, so I'll go with those. Thanks!
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Given the conditions on Venus (Score:5, Interesting)
It's pretty amazing we have any imaging of the planets surface at all.
The resolution of the surface makes me want to see a good 4K imaging like they did on Mars:
https://youtu.be/ZEyAs3NWH4A [youtu.be]
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Most surface imaging of Venus comes from radar, not optical cameras.
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Re:Ok, and...? (Score:4, Informative)
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Plus its atmosphere rotates around the planet every 4 Earth-days, a cloud-based human habitat would travel around the planet at about 360 kilometers/hour so the days would be 90-100 hours long.
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Supposedly Earth got it's 24 hour rotation and a moon by colliding with a Mars sized planet. Figure out how to use Mercury to give Venus a good whack, and you may be on to something.
Don't take a shortcut (Score:2)
and use proto matter. Maybe that is why we are seeing fresh volcanoes? This doesn't end well.
Still the second most habitable planet (Score:4, Interesting)
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I wonder why more sci-fi writers haven't explored this concept, I first heard about it in the '70s and was immediately interested.
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It's all fine until you hear, "Pop, ssssssss..."
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Could make it hard to find leaks.
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