Overview

• A NASA-funded study published in Nature Communications shows Venus’s crust recycles material into the mantle through density and heat-driven processes.
• Unlike Earth, Venus lacks tectonic plates, but its single, unified crust experiences metamorphism that may fuel hidden volcanic activity.
• The research estimates Venus’s crust to be about 40 km thick on average, contradicting earlier expectations of a continuously thickening shell.
• This crustal recycling process could generate lava and volcanic eruptions, offering new insights into Venus’s geodynamics and atmosphere.
• NASA is preparing upcoming missions to collect direct data on Venus’s crust and validate these groundbreaking models.