Venus is still 'active', Nasa study finds after identifying 37 'volcanic structures'

Volcanoes are 'dormant perhaps, but not dead', scientists say

Some 37 volcanic structures have been found on Venus, indicating that the planet is still still geologically active.

The volcanoes have been recently active, the Nasa-funded researchers found, suggesting that the planet could be more "alive" than we had previously thought.

"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, a professor of geology at UMD and co-author of the research paper, in a statement.

"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."

Scientists have long understood that the surface of Venus is younger than those of other planets such as Mars and Mercury, which are cold on the inside. There have been evidence that Venus could rather have a warm interior, and there have been clues on the surface that there could be geologic activity happening inside.

Those have been in the form of ring-like structures known as coronae. They happen when plumes of hot material from inside the planet push through onto the surface, in a similar way to the mantle plumes that can be seen in Hawaii.

But scientists thought those could just be signs of ancient activity, and that the planet was no longer active. There has been debate on how the coronae were formed, and whether it would be possible for them to form today.

As part of the new research, scientists created models of the activity that could be happening underneath the surface of Venus. That allowed them to create simulations of the processes that lead those coronae to form, allowing them to study high-resolution and 3D models of what they may look like.

Those simulations showed features that could only be found in coronae that were recently active. Researchers found those features on the surface of Venus, indicating that something is still happening beneath.

"The improved degree of realism in these models over previous studies makes it possible to identify several stages in corona evolution and define diagnostic geological features present only at currently active coronae," Montési said. "We are able to tell that at least 37 coronae have been very recently active."

Those 37 sites are spread across the surface, and could be useful targets for future missions to the planet, the scientists note.

The research is described in the journal Nature Geoscience and was conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The work was funded by Nasa as well as the Swiss National Science Foundation and the EU project Subitop.