Venus can be considered Earth’s evil twin because it has overwhelming pressure, sulfuric acid clouds and temperatures on its surface capable of melt lead. However, beneath that infernal façade, the planet could hide fascinating geological secrets. The first of these secrets has already been discovered, since we have proof that there is a huge underground lava tube.
More than volcanoes. This finding was published at the beginning of February in the magazine Nature confirming what planetary geologists have suspected for decades. And Venus not only has volcanoes, but it has a magmatic ‘plumbing’ system that makes those on Earth look ridiculous.
The finding focuses on the Nyx Monsa massive shield volcano 362 kilometers in diameter, where researchers from the University of Trento have identified a structure that changes our understanding of Venusian volcanism.
What have they seen? In short, experts have seen a kind of well or skylight that they have designated as ‘A’. But it is not a simple crack in the ground of the planet, but rather it is the entrance to an underground world.
This tunnel is not exactly small, since it has a diameter of more or less 1 kilometer and leads to a cave with a minimum height of 375 meters and an extension of at least 300 meters from the entrance. Although in this case estimates suggest that it could be up to 45 km long.
It’s not small. To put it in perspective: these dimensions far exceed the lava tubes that we find on the Moon, Mars or Earth. The physical reason behind this gigantism is the unique conditions of Venus: low gravity compared to Earth and its very dense atmosphere allow lava flows to create massive structures without collapsing so easily.
How they have done it. To achieve this, it is not that we have recently sent a new probe, but that the Italian team has carried out a reanalysis of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images captured by the NASA Magellan probe between 1990 and 1992. This already tells us that we should not throw away data no matter how much data we have.
For decades, those images were there, waiting for processing technology and human expertise to know where to look. Until finally these researchers detected a unique asymmetric radar reflection. In this way, by analyzing how the waves bounced off the western slope of Nyx Mons, they were able to infer the existence of the underground void.
A Spanish similarity. Something curious is that the authors of the study compare this training with the Green Cave in Lanzarotea terrestrial analogy that helps us understand morphology, although the Venusian version operates on a monumentally larger scale.
Its importance. Until now, volcanic activity on Venus was intuited by changes in the atmosphere or surface characteristics. This discovery is the first direct evidence of an empty underground conduit, validating theories about recent and intense volcanic activity that has shaped the planet as a geological “twin” of our own.
But the most interesting thing is in the future, since there are missions like VERITAS and EnVision that are about to leave our planet and that have much more modern and precise radar systems than that of the old Magellan. That is why they now have a great objective: to map the subsoil that we are beginning to know.
Images | SIMON LEE Marc Szeglat
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