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Old impacts ignite young volcanism

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Giant impacts can hit Venus harder than Earth in the end stages of planetary formation, super-heating Venus’s core. Slow escape of that heat drives long-lived surface volcanic activity.

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Fig. 1: Fast, giant impacts during the last stage of planetary formation are more likely to superheat the core and melt the mantle of Venus than Earth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Joseph G. O’Rourke

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  1. Joseph G. O’Rourke
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Correspondence to Joseph G. O’Rourke.

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O’Rourke, J.G. Old impacts ignite young volcanism. Nat Astron 7, 1152–1153 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02097-4

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