THE fiery and turbulent surface of Venus calmed down 750 million years ago, according to a re-analysis of data from the Magellan space probe.
Radar images collected by the orbiter in the early ’90s show several different terrains, but how they formed was unclear. Jim Head of Brown University in Rhode Island and his team focused on meteor craters as a measure of age – the more pockmarks, the older the terrain.
They conclude that the crust was originally far more mobile, with about a cubic kilometre of lava erupting per year. This is close to the rate at Earth’s mid-ocean…
