Scientists state that they have found pictures of the slopes of Mount Maat, the highest volcano on Venus. So it was previously believed that volcanoes were once on Venus, but there are no tectonic shifts on it and therefore volcanic activity cannot continue. At the same time, in images taken by Magellan in February and October 1991, a caldera was discovered on the slopes of the changing volcano’s basin, Maat, with a difference of 8 months.
During these 8 months, the caldera visibly grew from a round shape of about 2.2 square kilometers to an irregular caldera with an area of more than 3.9 square kilometers. The same processes occur during volcanic eruptions on Earth: as the magma supporting the caldera’s edges is depleted, the volcanic basin grows, causing its walls to collapse and increase in size.
In addition, Magellan noted an anomaly – a slightly reduced gravitational field directly above Maat: scientists noticed traces of fresh lava, which is also indicated by observations in the microwave range of electromagnetic waves.
According to scientists, their discovery is a great success. During the relatively short period of operation of the space probe, they managed to detect signs of high volcanic activity on Venus, which was previously thought to be almost impossible due to the absence of moving tectonic plates in the planet’s crust.
This means Venus is the third planet in the solar system, like Earth and Jupiter’s moon Io, on which volcanoes spewing magma are active.
Source: Ferra
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