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Coronae of Venus: Geological, Topographic and Morphometric Characteristics

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Abstract—

Coronae are large (up to 2500 km in diameter) annular landforms of Venus, the defining structural element of which is the annular framing, consisting of densely packed grooves/ridges. We carried out a detailed photogeological and topographic analysis of 550 coronae and found the following: (1) coronae with younger edging from rift fissures are characterized by a topographic profile with a dominant central dome (class D); this profile probably characterizes the progressive evolutionary stage of the parent diapir. (2) coronae of the transitional type with a frame consisting of groove belts and rift fissures more often have a profile with a central uplift surrounded by one or more concentric depressions (class W); such a profile may correspond to the transition from the progressive to the regressive stage of diapir evolution. (3) Coronae framed by more ancient groove belts or morphologically weakly expressed in relief. They have a profile in the form of a topographic depression (class U), the bottom of which can be complicated by one or more ring uplifts. This profile may be related to the regressive stage of diapir evolution. Apparently, the characteristic topographic profiles of coronae correspond to different stages of their formation and evolution of parental diapirs. The significantly smaller number of D-shaped coronae in comparison with the W and U class coronae indicates a significant decrease in the rate of mantle diapirism at the later stages of the geological history of Venus.

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FUNDING

The study was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 0137-2019-0001).

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  1. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    E. N. Guseva & M. A. Ivanov

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Guseva, E.N., Ivanov, M.A. Coronae of Venus: Geological, Topographic and Morphometric Characteristics. Sol Syst Res 56, 76–83 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094622020046

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