Tectonics and Evolution of Novae and Coronae on Venus: Tectonophysical Modeling Based on Gravitational Models

Abstract

This paper describes the results of tectonophysical modeling of the formation and evolution of novae and coronae—radial/concentric volcanotectonic structures typical of the surface of Venus. The formation of these structures is usually associated with the effect of the rising and subsequently relaxing mantle diapirs on the surface layers of the lithosphere. Two series of experiments with gravitational models reproduce the topographic changes and the evolution of structural patterns in the course of the formation of novae and coronae on Venus. For model materials, we chose (1) rubber (a Bingham liquid) to reproduce the behavior of the elastoviscous diapir material in one series of experiments and the lower part of the lithosphere in the other series and (2) flour to model tectonic structures in the upper, brittle part of the lithosphere. Regularities in the formation of the topographic and structural characteristics of novae and coronae have been demonstrated on models of different geometry. The process of formation of the dense radial fracturing in novae due to the mechanical elevation caused by the formation of a rising dome, which was suggested by many authors, is not corroborated by our models. In the course of modeling, we studied the influence of the relative dimensions of the diapir and the thickness of the overlying structures, or the relative depth of the neutral buoyancy surface of the diapir, on the topographic, morphological, and structural features of novae and coronae and on the possible paths of their evolution. Regularities are also revealed in the formation of tectonic structures in relation to the environment in which the diapir evolution occurs—in the brittle upper part of the lithosphere or in its lower, viscoplastic part.