Characterizing Patterns of Resurfacing on Venus With Volcanoes and Coronae.
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| Title: | Characterizing Patterns of Resurfacing on Venus With Volcanoes and Coronae. |
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| Authors: | Montiel, Nicholas J.1 (AUTHOR) nicholasjohn.montiel@unipd.it, De Toffoli, Barbara1 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets. May2026, Vol. 131 Issue 5, p1-17. 17p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Volcanoes, Lava flows, Planetary surfaces, Volcanic fields, Planetary crusts |
| Abstract: | One of the major research questions for Venus is the manner in which it resurfaces itself, with a near‐random distribution of a relatively few craters providing the only age constraints for the planet's surface. We use volcanoes and their temporal and spatial relationships to coronae to characterize patterns of coronal resurfacing for different geological settings. Analysis of the population density of small volcanoes associated with coronae demonstrates that coronae and small volcanoes are anticorrelated at a regional scale for the low‐lying, volcanic plains. In addition, stratigraphic analysis of the relative age of volcanoes near coronae suggests that pre‐coronal volcanic cones are being erased then replaced by fewer volcanic edifices. When taken into consideration with observations of coronal lava flows preserved in the process of destroying clusters of volcanoes near coronae, this suggests that coronae are potentially an important resurfacing mechanism for Venusian plains, affecting up to 27% of the planet's surface with a resurfacing rate of 100s km2/yr. This model of coronal resurfacing is consistent with patchwork resurfacing that may produce the random distribution of large craters on Venus and demonstrates that volcanoes may be useful for characterizing patterns of resurfacing when craters are rare. Plain Language Summary: Venus, despite being similar in size and composition to Earth, has a very different style of geology compared to plate tectonics. Understanding the patterns in which Venus creates new surfaces is important, since the usual way that ages of planetary surfaces are calculated (by counting craters) is insufficient for Venus due in part to the randomness of the crater distribution. We attempt to use volcanoes and their relationship to features called coronae to get around this problem. Coronae are circular tectonic and magmatic features and we show that the number of volcanoes per km2 drops in the vicinity of coronae in the low‐elevation plains and deformation belts of Venus. We also show that the ages of these volcanoes relative to adjacent coronae skews younger than the corona, suggesting that pre‐existing volcanoes were erased around coronae. When we combine these observations with the observations of lava flows from the coronae inundating surrounding volcanic fields and destroying or burying the volcanic cones, we conclude that coronae are an important way in which Venus creates new surfaces and that this model fits with previous estimates of resurfacing rates and ages. Key Points: For Venus's low‐lying plains, volcanoes are regionally anti‐correlated to coronae to at least twice the radius of the coronaVolcano‐poor regions around plains‐associated coronae are likely the result of coronal lava flows erasing pre‐existing volcanic conesVolcanic edifices may be used to calculate rates of resurfacing in lieu of craters [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | GreenFILE |
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