Venus May Have Active Volcanoes, Data Suggests

According to data sent back from ESA's Venus Express orbiter, there's been a significant change in the amount of sulphur dioxide gas above the dense cloud layer of Venus.

Even after several visits to Venus, it still remains a mystery whether there are any active volcanoes on the planet. The atmosphere of Venus is covered by thick sulphur dioxide. The temperature on the surface of the planet can rise up to 460 degree Celsius due to its carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere which traps the heat from the sun, according to Space Daily. It is the second nearest planet to the sun at a distance of 108 million kilometers.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr. Emmanuel Marcq of Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, France explained, "If you see a sulfur dioxide increase in the upper atmosphere, you know that something has brought it up recently, because individual molecules are destroyed there by sunlight after just a couple of days."

"A volcanic eruption could act like a piston to blast sulfur dioxide up to these levels, but peculiarities in the circulation of the planet that we don't yet fully understand could also mix the gas to reproduce the same result," said Dr. Jean-Loup Bertaux, principal investigator for the instrument that made the discovery.

According to the data sent from Venus Express, using a spectrometer on board, SPICAV-UV shows that the concentration of sulphur dioxide above the thick cloud layer of Venus increased to about 1,000 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) in 2006 to 2007. But there was a drastic fall over the next five years, to only 100 ppbv by 2012.

"SO2 is known to be an important, and constant, constituent of the lower atmosphere of Venus. A steady supply of SO2 to high levels is provided by air rising from the hot, lower atmosphere. When it gets above the clouds, SO2 is rapidly destroyed by solar UV light, so it has a very short life, less than half a day, in the upper atmosphere of Venus," said Marcq in a report from Space Daily. "This means that the only explanation for a marked rise and fall in SO2 concentration at an altitude of 70 km is an enhanced injection of enriched gas from lower levels, beneath the clouds."