Is Venus Geologically Active?

[n2doc]

"The geological history of Venus has long been a mystery," said Sue Smrekar, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Previous spacecraft gave us hints of volcanic activity, but we didn't know how long ago that occurred. Now we have strong evidence right at the surface for recent eruptions."

New observations reveal that volcanoes on Venus appeared to erupt between a few hundred years to 2.5 million years ago, which suggests the planet may still be geologically active, making Venus one of the few worlds in our solar system that has been volcanically active within the last 3 million years.

The evidence comes from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, which has been in orbit around the planet since April 2006. The science results were laid over topographic data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. Magellan radar-mapped 98 percent of the surface and collected high-
resolution gravity data while orbiting Venus from 1990 to 1994.

Scientists see compositional differences compared to the surrounding landscape in three volcanic regions. Relatively young lava flows have been identified by the way they emit infrared radiation.

These observations suggest Venus is still capable of volcanic eruptions. The findings appear in the
April 8 edition of the journal Science.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/02/-are-active-volcanoes-on-venus-planet-has-long-been-thought-dead.html

[Warpy]

1. I would suggest vulcanism has contributed significantly

to the nature of its atmosphere.

It's not a nice place to live.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. I don't see how Mr. Spock's wisdom affected the atmosphere of Venus. n/t