On Venus there is “volcanic activity comparable to that on Earth”: the new discovery thanks to the work of an Italian team of scientists.
A new discovery on Venus comes from the work of an Italian team of scientists. After the one in 2023 which detected an active volcano thanks to the analysis of data from the Magellan space probe, direct geological evidence of volcanic activity on the Planet “comparable to that on Earth”. But what exactly did they see?
The new Italian study on Venus
It is not the first time that scientists have identified traces of volcanic activity on Venus. As anticipated, already in 2023 thanks to the archive data collected by NASA’s Magellan probe Direct evidence had been made known for the first time of a volcanic eruption on the planet that occurred between February and October 1991, with such explosive force as to reshape the crater of the Maat Mons volcano, which is located near the equator.
A historic discovery, from which scientists have not only been able to draw a clearer picture of what happens on the surface of Venus but have also been able to detect the presence of further volcanic activity. The Italian team formed by Davide Sulcanese, Giuseppe Mitri and Marco Mastrogiuseppe compared the topographic maps of two regions of the planet’s surface recorded between 1990 and 1992: on the one hand the area around the Sif Mons volcano in the southern hemisphere and on the other the Niobe Planitia area near the equator.
“Using these maps as a guide, our results show that Venus could be much more volcanically active than previously thought,” explained Davide Sulcanese of the University of Pescara and author of the study. Evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus revealed by Magellan radar published in the magazine Nature Astronomy -. By analyzing the lava flows we observed in two locations on the planet, we discovered that volcanic activity on Venus could be comparable to that on Earth“.
On Venus volcanic activity similar to that on Earth
But what exactly did Sulcanese and his colleagues see? Comparing the maps from 1990 and 1992 they observed how over the course of those two years they had flowed across the surface of the lava rivers rather substantial, which then solidified into new rock deposits – some of which are up to 20 meters deep – numerous enough to ideally fill 90,000 Olympic swimming pools.
“We interpret these signals as flows along slopes or volcanic plains which can deviate around obstacles such as shield volcanoes like a fluid – added Marco Mastrogiuseppe of La Sapienza University of Rome, co-author of the study -. After ruling out other possibilities, we confirmed that our best interpretation is that these are new lava flows.” Excellent material for the next one NASA VERITAS missionwhich will be launched to explore Venus after 2030.
“Our spacecraft will have a number of approaches to identify superficial changes which are much more complete and with a higher resolution than Magellan’s images – explained the principal investigator of the VERITAS mission, US astronomer Suzanne Smrekar -. Evidence of activity, even in low-resolution Magellan data, raises the potential to revolutionize our understanding of this enigmatic world.”
