Venus is home to some of the most unique volcanoes in the solar system, including massive, flattened domes that resemble pancakes left on a hot surface. A new study has shed light on how these “pancake domes” formed, suggesting that Venus’ flexible crust played a crucial role.
Researchers used old NASA data from the 1990s Magellan mission to build a virtual model of one particularly large dome, Narina Tholus, which stretches over 145 kilometers across. The study found that lava alone cannot explain the domes’ unusual shape. Instead, the team discovered that the flexure of Venus’ crust can cause the lava to pile up and form flat tops with steep sides.
The model also reproduced the crustal bulges spotted around some domes in previous studies. However, only ultra-dense lava, with a density more than twice that of water and over a trillion times as viscous as ketchup, matched both the dome shape and surrounding deformation.
The team’s findings are based on a single dome, but upcoming missions like NASA’s VERITAS and DAVINCI will provide better topographic data to test their theory across more of Venus’ thousands of volcanic features. Understanding these unique features could provide insights into the formation of this extreme planet, often referred to as Earth’s “evil twin.”
Source: https://gizmodo.com/the-strange-secret-behind-venus-pancake-volcanoes-2000608733