{"id":286141,"date":"2023-11-01T20:07:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286141"},"modified":"2023-11-01T20:07:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:07:57","slug":"modeling-gone-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286141","title":{"rendered":"Modeling Gone Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus is the least understood of the terrestrial planets. Despite broad similarities to the Earth in mass and size, Venus has no evidence of plate tectonics recorded on its young surface, and Venus\u2019s atmosphere is strikingly different. Numerical experiments of long-term planetary evolution have sought to understand Venus\u2019s thermal\u2013tectonic history with indeterminate results.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every once in awhile I read a news release and do a facepalm. I note that \u201csimulations\u201d are not \u201cevidence\u201d and chaos (and uncertainty) works backward in time too. \u2013 Anthony<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From EurekAlert<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Venus had Earth-like plate tectonics billions of years ago, study suggests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simulations produced by a Brown-led research team offer evidence that Venus once had plate tectonics \u2014 a finding that opens the door for the possibility of early life on the planet and insights into its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROVIDENCE, R.I.<\/strong> [Brown University] \u2014 Venus, a scorching wasteland of a planet according to scientists, may have once had tectonic plate movements similar to those believed to have occurred on early Earth, a new study found. The finding sets up tantalizing scenarios regarding the possibility of early life on Venus, its evolutionary past and the history of the solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing in Nature Astronomy<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> a team of scientists led by Brown University researchers describes using atmospheric data from Venus and computer modeling to show that the composition of the planet\u2019s current atmosphere and surface pressure would only have been possible as a result of an early form of plate tectonics, a process critical to life that involves multiple continental plates pushing, pulling and sliding beneath one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Earth, this process intensified over billions of years, forming new continents and mountains, and leading to chemical reactions that stabilized the planet\u2019s surface temperature, resulting in an environment more conducive to the development of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus, on the other hand, Earth\u2019s nearest neighbor and sister planet, went in the opposite direction and today has surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. One explanation is that the planet has always been thought to have what\u2019s known as a \u201cstagnant lid,\u201d meaning its surface has only a single plate with minimal amounts of give, movement and gasses being released into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new paper posits that this wasn\u2019t always the case. To account for the abundance of nitrogen and carbon dioxide present in Venus\u2019 atmosphere, the researchers conclude that Venus must have had plate tectonics sometime after the planet formed, about 4.5 billion to 3.5 billion years ago. The paper suggests that this early tectonic movement, like on Earth, would have been limited in terms of the number of plates moving and in how much they shifted. It also would have been happening on Earth and Venus simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the big picture takeaways is that we very likely had two planets at the same time in the same solar system operating in a plate tectonic regime \u2014 the same mode of tectonics that allowed for the life that we see on Earth today,\u201d said Matt Weller, the study\u2019s lead author who completed the work while he was a postdoctoral researcher at Brown and is now at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bolsters the possibility of microbial life on ancient Venus and shows that at one point the two planets \u2014 which are in the same solar neighborhood, are about the same size, and have the same mass, density and volume \u2014 were more alike than previously thought before diverging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work also highlights the possibility that plate tectonics on planets might just come down to timing \u2014 and therefore, so may life itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve so far thought about tectonic state in terms of a binary: it\u2019s either true or it\u2019s false, and it\u2019s either true or false for the duration of the planet,\u201d said study co-author Alexander Evans, an assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown. \u201cThis shows that planets may transition in and out of different tectonic states and that this may actually be fairly common. Earth may be the outlier. This also means we might have planets that transition in and out of habitability rather than just being continuously habitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That concept will be important to consider as scientists look to understand nearby moons \u2014 like Jupiter\u2019s Europa, which has shown proof of having Earth-like plate tectonics<\/a> \u2014 and distant exoplanets, according to the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers initially started the work as a way to show that the atmospheres of far-off exoplanets can be powerful markers of their early histories, before deciding to investigate that point closer to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They used current data on Venus\u2019 atmosphere as the endpoint for their models and started by assuming Venus has had a stagnant lid through its entire existence. Quickly, they were able to see that simulations recreating the planet\u2019s current atmosphere didn\u2019t match up with where the planet is now in terms of the amount nitrogen and carbon dioxide present in the current atmosphere and its resulting surface pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers then simulated what would have had to happen on the planet to get to where it is today. They eventually matched the numbers almost exactly when they accounted for limited tectonic movement early in Venus\u2019 history followed by the stagnant lid model that exists today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the team believes the work serves as a proof of concept regarding atmospheres and their ability to provide insights into the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in this paradigm where we use the surfaces of planets to understand their history,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe really show for the first time that the atmosphere may actually be the best way to understand some of the very ancient history of planets that is often not preserved on the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upcoming NASA DAVINCI missions, which will measure gasses in the Venusian atmosphere, may help solidify the study\u2019s findings. In the meantime, the researchers plan to delve deep into a key question the paper raises: What happened to plate tectonics on Venus? The theory in the paper suggests that the planet ultimately became too hot and its atmosphere too thick, drying up the necessary ingredients for tectonic movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVenus basically ran out of juice to some extent, and that put the brakes on the process,\u201d said Daniel Ibarra, a professor in Brown\u2019s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and co-author on the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say the details of how this happened may hold important implications for Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be the next critical step in understanding Venus, its evolution and ultimately the fate of the Earth,\u201d Weller said. \u201cWhat conditions will force us to move in a Venus-like trajectory, and what conditions could allow the Earth to remain habitable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also included Alexandria Johnson from Purdue University. It was supported by NASA\u2019s Solar System Workings program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venus is the least understood of the terrestrial planets. Despite broad similarities to the Earth in mass and size, Venus has no evidence of plate tectonics recorded on its young surface, and Venus\u2019s atmosphere is strikingly different. Numerical experiments of long-term planetary evolution have sought to understand Venus\u2019s thermal\u2013tectonic history with indeterminate results.\u00a0 From Watts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":286144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Venus is the least understood of the terrestrial planets. 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