Why is Venus so cracked?

Venus: Why Is Our “Sister” Planet So…Cracked?

Venus. We call it Earth’s “sister planet” because, well, it’s kinda like us. Similar size, density, the whole shebang. But step onto its surface (if you could survive the heat and pressure!) and you’d realize just how different it is. Forget the familiar continents and oceans; Venus is a cracked, volcanic mess. So, what gives? Why is Venus so…cracked?

The big one? Venus seems to have skipped the whole “plate tectonics” memo. Think of Earth as a cracked eggshell, with pieces constantly shifting. That movement lets heat escape from deep inside, like a pressure valve. Venus? It’s more like a solid, unyielding marble. No shifting plates, no easy way to vent that internal heat.

And that heat really builds up. Imagine a pressure cooker, slowly simmering for eons. One theory suggests that all that pent-up heat eventually triggers planet-wide volcanic eruptions. Talk about a bad day! The whole surface gets buried under lava, and then the cycle starts all over again. Scientists reckon this last happened somewhere between 300 and 500 million years ago. That’s relatively recent, geologically speaking!

Now, don’t get me wrong, Venus isn’t completely inactive. It’s got its own brand of tectonic weirdness. We see faults, folds, and these crazy, jumbled terrains called tesserae. Imagine scrunching up a piece of paper – that’s kinda what tesserae look like. These features tell us that Venus is definitely feeling some internal stress.

Then there are mantle plumes. These are like giant blobs of hot rock rising from deep within the planet. When they hit the surface, they can create these awesome ring-shaped structures called coronae. I always think of them as planetary pimples, but, you know, on a slightly grander scale. And get this: recent studies suggest that some of these coronae are still being formed today! Venus might be more active than we thought!

Speaking of active, let’s talk volcanoes. Venus is covered in them. About 80% of the surface is volcanic plains. Shield volcanoes, composite volcanoes, pancake domes (yes, really!). All that volcanic activity is a huge contributor to the cracked and fractured look of the planet. It’s like the whole planet is one giant, slowly cooling lava field.

Of course, it’s not just volcanoes. The crazy-thick Venusian atmosphere probably plays a role, slowly weathering the rocks. And some scientists think the crust is broken into little pieces that are constantly bumping and grinding against each other. It’s a complex picture, for sure.

And here’s a twist: some new research suggests that Venus might have had plate tectonics way back in the day, like billions of years ago. If that’s true, it could completely change how we think about Venus’s past, and even its potential for ancient life. Mind. Blown.

The good news is, we’re not giving up on Venus. There are some seriously cool missions planned for the next few years, like NASA’s VERITAS and DAVINCI, and the European Space Agency’s EnVision. These missions will give us a much better look at Venus’s atmosphere, surface, and interior. Hopefully, we’ll finally unravel the mysteries of our cracked “sister” planet. Who knows what we’ll discover? Maybe Venus isn’t so different from Earth after all. Or maybe it’s even more fascinating than we ever imagined. Only time (and a few well-placed spacecraft) will tell!