![Hier klicken, um den Treffer aus der Auswahl zu entfernen](images/unchecked.gif) |
Titel |
Search for ongoing volcanic activity on Venus: Case study of Maat Mons, Sapas Mons and Ozza Mons |
VerfasserIn |
A. T. Basilevsky, E. V. Shalygin, W. J. Markiewicz, D. V. Titov, Th. Roatsch, M. A. Kreslavsky |
Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
|
Medientyp |
Artikel
|
Sprache |
Englisch
|
Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
Datensatznummer |
250064211
|
|
|
|
Zusammenfassung |
Maat Mons volcano and its vicinities show evidence of geologically very recent volcanism.
We consider Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) night-side images of this area. Analysis of
VMC images taken in 12 observation sessions during the time period from 31 Oct 2007 to 15
Jun 2009 did not reveal any suspicious high-emission spots which could be signatures of the
presently ongoing volcanic eruptions.
If Maat Mons volcano had the eruption history similar to that of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, in
the 20th century, the probability to observe an eruption in this VMC observation sequence
would be about 8%, meaning that the absence of detection does not mean that Maat is not
active in the present epoch.
Blurring of the thermal radiation coming from Venus surface by the planet atmosphere
decreases detectability of thermal signature of fresh lavas. We simulated near-infrared images
of the study area with artificially added lava flows having surface temperature 1000 K and
various areas. These simulations showed that 1 km² lava flows should be marginally seen by
VMC. An increase of the lava surface area to 2 – 3 km² makes them visible on the plains and
increase of the area to 4 – 5 km² makes them visible even in deep rift zones. Typical individual
lava flows on Mauna Loa are a few km², however, they often have been formed during weeks
to months and the instantaneous size of the hot flow surface was usually much smaller.
Thus the detection probability is significantly lower than 8%, but it is far from
negligible.
Our consideration suggests that further search of Maat Mons area and other areas
including young rift zones makes sense and should be continued. More effective search could
be done if observations simultaneously cover most part of the night side of Venus for
relatively long (years) time of continuous observations. |
|
|
|
|
|