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By analyzing images taken by the Magellan Venus probe in the 1990s, scientists found signs of volcanic eruption or magmatic flow on Venus.

/ photos by Jason Goodyer (Jason Goodyer)

Translation | Mai Li

Editor | Wen Jing

The original article is published in Science focus 2023.06.

Source: Pixabay

Eruptions occur several times a year. A team of researchers at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Alaska found that volcanic eruptions or magmatic flows may have occurred on the surface of Venus. The team studied data collected by the American Venus probe Magellan in the 1990s, using a new technology to more effectively compare and analyze digital images.

The study area covers the two largest volcanic groups on Venus, Mount Ozza Mons and Mount Maat Mons. The team found that in 1991, Mount Matt had a crater about 2.5 square kilometers in area, and that the shape and size of the crater changed over the next eight months. On Earth, this degree of change usually indicates that volcanic activity has occurred.

"in fact, in the last 10 years, the data detected by the Venus probe Magellan can be viewed in the form of full-resolution radar images, and researchers can easily operate independently without any special conditions." "Oza and Matt are comparable in size to the largest volcanoes on earth, but they have a smaller slope, so they occupy a larger area," said Robert Herrick, a professor of geophysics at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska, who led the study.

The team compared two photos of the north side of a dome shield volcano, which belongs to the Matt Mountain volcano group, one taken in February 1991 and the other in October 1991.

During this period, the crater changed from a circle of about 2.5 square kilometers to an irregular shape of about 3.75 square kilometers, and the wall of the volcano became shorter. This indicates that at least one eruption occurred during the eight-month shooting period, and the magma flow caused the irregular shape of the crater.

Notably, the team said that changes in the shape of the crater may also be caused by earthquakes. On Earth, however, vent collapses on this scale are always accompanied by volcanic eruptions in nearby areas.

"it can be said that the volcanoes on Venus are currently active, erupting at least several times a year," Herrick said. "the upcoming Venus exploration mission may observe new lava flows that have occurred since the Magellan mission ended 30 years ago. even some ongoing volcanic activity."

Expert interpretation: what else will be found in the future? What is the significance of confirming the existence of volcanic activity on Venus? To that end, Science focus interviewed Paul Bourne. He is an associate professor of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of Washington in the United States. His main research direction is "what makes the planets what they are today." Burnley studies the earth and other celestial bodies through remote sensing data, field work, and the construction of physical models.

Is this discovery surprising? This discovery is amazing. We have long speculated that Venus has volcanic activity, but before that, we did not have any direct evidence to prove the existence of volcanic activity. To be fair, I don't think this discovery is unexpected. Similar collapses or eruptions occur frequently on Earth, at least geologically. Moreover, there are many volcanic landforms on Venus-volcanoes, calderas (depressions formed by magma retreat, self-collapse or shallow magma sac eruptions, the top of volcanic cones or the collapse of a group of volcanic cones), craters and lava flows. But this does not mean that there must be volcanic activity on Venus. So this discovery is very important, after all, speculation is one thing, actually seeing is another.

Does this discovery mean that we are more likely to find volcanic activity on other planets or moons? The discovery has nothing to do with the discovery of volcanic activity on any other celestial body. But to a large extent, it bodes well for more signs of continued volcanic activity elsewhere on Venus-perhaps by continuing to study data from the Magellan Venus probe, or by using new radar data from VERITAS and EnVision missions that will be carried out in the 1930s.

What other research is being done in this field? Now, I hope other researchers will also take a look at the map of Venus to see if they can find other evidence of volcanic change in the data from the Magellan Venus probe. In addition, other work is under way to simulate volcanic activity on Venus, including modeling to determine what we can find using higher-resolution data in future Venus missions.

What will we find in the future? In the future, we will have a more comprehensive understanding of how active Venus is-not only volcanic activity, but also other tectonic activities you know, as well as wind erosion and landslides, and so on.

For a long time, there has been a view that Venus is not a very active planet, although it is about the size of Earth, and the Earth is a very active planet. However, the new idea that Venus is active is being accepted by more and more scientists. There is no doubt that this new study has greatly promoted the popularization of this view.

References:

Space volcano: Astronomers find evidence of eruption on Venus for first time | BBC Science Focus Magazine

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