Hot Active Volcanoes on Venus Ready to Blow
We’ve known for some time now that our neighbor Venus is hell off-Earth, but new research suggests it’s even worse than we thought.
In addition to its toxic atmosphere and lead-melting (literally) temperatures, the second planet from the sun looks to be home to at least a few dozen active volcanoes belching up brimstone to add to the ambience.
“This is the first time we are able to point to specific structures and say, ‘Look, this is not an ancient volcano but one that is active today, dormant perhaps, but not dead,'” said Laurent Montési, geology professor at the University of Maryland, in a release. “This study significantly changes the view of Venus from a mostly inactive planet to one whose interior is still churning and can feed many active volcanoes.”
Montési is co-author of a new paper published Monday in Nature Geoscience identifying 37 “recently active volcanic structures” on Venus.
Perhaps ironically, geologically-active planets with hot interiors tend to be better candidates for habitability, because a molten core can also power a magnetic field to deflect sterilizing radiation from the sun and space.
Venus, being the forsaken place it is, is the rare active planet that doesn’t generate its own magnetic field internally. This planet is really about as inviting as a mouthful of razor wire.
Scientists have known there is evidence of volcanic activity on Venus for a while, but it was thought it was probably the remnants of ancient activity.
Montési and colleagues used 3D models of Venusian sub-surface activity to look at the features on the surface of the planet in a new way, helping them to identify potentially active hotspots.
The team hopes future missions to Venus could get a better look at its eruptive nature. It may be a while, though, as many space programs are aiming for Mars right now.
However, the BepiColombo spacecraft bound for Mercury will make a pair of flybys past Venus over the next 13 months. So maybe we’ll get more familiar with the worst place in the solar system soon enough.
Read more at www.cnet.com
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Joseph Olson
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Venus has a Carbon Dioxide atmosphere, blamed by climaclownology as greenhouse warming gas. CO2 has a Specific Heat of 0.8 meaning it heats and cools faster than Earth standard air, assigned SH of 1.0
Without knowledge of volcanism, the AGW myth was remote possibility, with proof of this additional heat source, AGW is absurd. Venus likely has significant Uranium and Thorium core, but limited Iron. It is the 900 mile, cubic crystal Iron core, with its inherent magnetic dipole, that forms Earth’s life saving magnetosphere.
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J Cuttance
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Venus’ atmosheric temperature at 50km, where the pressure is 1atm and comparison with Earth is valid, is about 66 centigrade. That is exactly what you would expect it to be if you only consider Venus’ closer proximity to the sun.
But Venus has 2000x Earth’s concentration of CO2. This much-vaunted greenhouse gas doesn’t increase the temperature on the planet by one measly degree with 2000x more of the stuff. Where’s the forcing? The Goddess of Love certainly doesn’t show the greenhouse theory much love.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Eric and Joe,
“This is the first time we are able to point to specific structures and say, ‘Look, this is not an ancient volcano but one that is active today, dormant perhaps, but not dead,’” said Laurent Montési, geology professor at the University of Maryland, in a release. “This study significantly changes the view of Venus from a mostly inactive planet to one whose interior is still churning and can feed many active volcanoes.”
I attended the International Colloquium On Venus (August 10-12,1992 at Pasadena CA).and have read extensively about this planet so I know that Professor Laurent Montesi has either not done a good literature search or is significantly distorting what had been observed decades ago.
One very intestestin fact that a PSI reader might not know is that, at this Colloquium it was reported that the surface of Venus, which had been recently mapped the radar of a satellite orbiting Venus, was only 500,000,000 while it is understood that the Earth’s surface is about 4,000,000,000 years old. And when the one reporting this was asked: “How can this be?, there was silence and then an admission that we have not idea.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Michael Clarke
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Please Mr Scientist, can you tell us when that volcano over there is going to blow cos I would like to be elsewhere when it goes!
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