Advances in Earth Science ›› 2020, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (9): 912-923. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2020.075

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Recent Advance in the Interior Structure and Dynamics of Venus

An Yang 1, 2( ),Song Xiang 3, 4,Jinshui Huang 3, 4   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment,Institute of Oceanology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Qingdao 266071,China
    2.Laboratory for Marine Geology,Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology,Qingdao 266061,China
    3.School of Earth and Space Sciences,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,China
    4.CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology,Hefei 230026,China
  • Received:2020-05-18 Revised:2020-08-18 Online:2020-09-10 Published:2020-10-28
  • About author:Yang An (1987-), male, Pengxi County, Sichuan Province, Assistant professor. Research areas include mantle convection and lithosphere dynamics. E-mail: yangan@qdio.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China “Influence of dynamic topography on global sea level change since late Paleozoic”(41804086);“Numerical simulation of the thermochemical evolution of the Earth’s mantle with plate tectonics”(41674096)

An Yang,Song Xiang,Jinshui Huang. Recent Advance in the Interior Structure and Dynamics of Venus[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2020, 35(9): 912-923.

Venus is similar to the Earth in size, mass, composition and distance to the sun. However, Venus has neither plate tectonics nor dynamo that exists on the Earth. The lithosphere of Venus is very thick based on its topography and gravity. The admittance and correlation between Venusian geoid and topography are very high, suggesting that they are strongly influenced by the internal dynamical process of Venus. Analyses show that there may be 10 Hawaii-like mantle plumes in Venusian mantle. Data from Venus Express has shown evidence for recent active volcanism among several of these plumes. The distribution of impact craters on Venus shows that Venusian surface has a young age and the age is averaged about 500 Ma, suggesting that Venus may have experienced a global resurfacing event. However, whether this resurfacing is catastrophic or equilibrium is still under debate. It is also unclear whether Venus had plate tectonics in the past, is it always in stagnant lid regime, or might it have an entirely different mode?In general, the style of mantle convection on Venus is quite different from that of the Earth which is manifested by the plate tectonics. Here we reviewed the main observations including gravity, topography and surface tectonics which provide constrains on the interior structure and dynamics of Venus, and recent advance in the interior structure and dynamics of Venus. This review aims to provide new insights into the interior dynamics of Venus.

No related articles found!
Viewed
Full text


Abstract