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Home Science & Environment

Venus’s Mysterious Circles Hint at a Lost Chapter of Earth’s History todayheadline

May 16, 2025
in Science & Environment
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Mysterious circular features on Venus may be sites of ongoing geological activity similar to what shaped early Earth, according to new research published in Science Advances. By analyzing decades-old data from NASA’s Magellan mission with fresh computational techniques, scientists have uncovered evidence that many of Venus’s coronae – large, ring-shaped structures encircled by fractures – are actively formed by hot mantle material pushing up from below the planet’s surface.

The study provides the most comprehensive view yet of these enigmatic features and suggests Venus has a more dynamic interior than previously thought. Most significantly, the findings indicate that while Venus lacks Earth’s plate tectonics, it maintains its own unique form of geological activity that could offer valuable insights into our own planet’s early history, before Earth’s modern tectonic system was established.

What exactly drives the formation of these distinctive circles on Venus’s surface, and could studying them help us understand how Earth evolved billions of years ago?

Gravity Data Reveals What Lies Beneath

The research team, led by Gael Cascioli of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, combined sophisticated 3D computer models with Magellan’s topography and gravity measurements to analyze 75 coronae large enough to be resolved in the available data.

“These features are not found on Earth today; however, they may have existed when our planet was young and before plate tectonics had been established,” says Cascioli. “By combining gravity and topography data, this research has provided a new and important insight into the possible subsurface processes currently shaping the surface of Venus.”

Their analysis revealed compelling evidence that 52 of these coronae (about 70%) have buoyant, hot mantle plumes beneath them – a strong indication of ongoing activity. The gravity data proved crucial for detecting these subsurface features, providing information that couldn’t be discerned from topography alone.

A Spectrum of Tectonic Processes

Rather than a single formation mechanism, the study found evidence for various types of plume-lithosphere interactions creating different corona types. These processes include:

  • Short-lived radial subduction – where surface material spreads outward from rising plumes and pushes surrounding crust downward at the edges
  • Lithospheric dripping – where dense pockets of cooler material sink from Venus’s lithosphere into the hot mantle
  • Embedded plumes – where hot material rises and becomes trapped under the lithosphere
  • Underplated plumes – where mantle material accumulates beneath a strong lithosphere

“The most exciting thing for our study is that we can now say there are most likely various and ongoing active processes driving their formation,” says study co-author Anna Gülcher, an Earth and planetary scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

From 1990s Data to New Discoveries

What makes this research particularly remarkable is that it relies on data collected over 30 years ago. The Magellan spacecraft, which launched in 1989 and orbited Venus until 1994, provided what is still the most comprehensive gravity and topography dataset for the planet.

While Magellan’s data resolution limited the team to analyzing only the largest coronae (about 75 out of the 740 known coronae on Venus), the study demonstrates how combining creative analytical approaches with existing datasets can yield important new insights.

The researchers created detailed computer models simulating how different types of mantle plumes might interact with Venus’s lithosphere, then compared the gravity and topography signatures these models predicted with actual Magellan measurements. This allowed them to identify likely formation mechanisms for specific coronae.

Examples from Venus’s Surface

The team identified several noteworthy coronae that exemplify different formation processes. For instance, Eithinoha, located in Venus’s southern hemisphere, shows features consistent with early-to-mid stage plume-induced crustal recycling. Its distinctive trench, rim, and relatively flat interior match the gravity and topography patterns predicted by the team’s models.

Similarly, Javine and Otygen show evidence of active plume-induced crustal recycling, while Pavlova and Aruru in the eastern Eistla region appear to be formed by hot plumes trapped beneath Venus’s lithosphere.

Looking Ahead to VERITAS

The study’s limitations stem largely from the relatively low resolution of Magellan’s gravity data, which can mask important details. NASA’s upcoming VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than 2031, promises to transform our understanding of Venus’s geology with dramatically improved measurements.

“The VERITAS gravity maps of Venus will boost the resolution by at least a factor of two to four, depending on location — a level of detail that could revolutionize our understanding of Venus’ geology and implications for early Earth,” notes study co-author Suzanne Smrekar, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and principal investigator for VERITAS.

With VERITAS, scientists expect to resolve 427 coronae in sufficient detail for analysis – a nearly six-fold increase over what was possible with Magellan data. This dramatic improvement will allow researchers to systematically catalog the processes shaping Venus’s surface and potentially draw more precise parallels to Earth’s early geological development.

By revealing that Venus maintains active geological processes driven by its hot interior, despite lacking Earth’s plate tectonics, these findings suggest our planetary neighbor may serve as a natural laboratory for understanding Earth’s distant past – a time before our planet developed its current system of moving tectonic plates but when similar plume-driven processes may have shaped its surface.

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