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Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms

Nature Geoscience volume 17, pages 740–746 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus consist of Lakshmi Planum, an Australia-sized crustal plateau with an average elevation of ~4 km that is comparable to that of the Tibetan Plateau, surrounded by elongated mountain belts with elevations of around 10 km, taller than the Himalayas. The region is floored by thick crust that is comparable to that of cratons on Earth. On Earth, plateaus and mountain belts result from the collision of tectonic plates. However, the origin of Ishtar Terra remains enigmatic because Venus lacks Earth-like plate tectonics. Here we use three-dimensional thermo-chemo-mechanical computational simulations of Venus-like mantle convection to show how magmatism and tectonics emerge from mantle dynamics. The simulations show that a lithosphere weakened as a result of high initial hydration or high surface temperatures enhances convective thinning and decompression melting, favouring the emplacement of a thick magmatic crust on top of a deep residual depleted mantle. The stiffer residual root deflects mantle flow outwards, leading to the formation of fold belts around the buoyant lithosphere that are consequently uplifted into a plateau and preserved from further deformation. The modelled topography, crustal thicknesses and gravity is consistent with observational constraints of Ishtar Terra. Our findings suggest that plateau formation on Venus may operate similarly to craton formation on the hot early Earth, before the onset of plate tectonics.

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Fig. 1: Computational simulation of Venus-like mantle convection.
Fig. 2: Comparisons between Ishtar Terra and the computational simulation.
Fig. 3: Mantle flow, temperatures and melting through the formation of the plateau.
Fig. 4: Surface strain rates and magmatism evolution.

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Data availability

All the Venus datasets used are published and available14,24.

Code availability

Underworld2 version 2.8.1b is available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3384283 (ref. 65).

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. B. Harris, V. L. Hansen and P. A. Cawood for discussions. We acknowledge the provision of resources and services from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and the support of AuScope and the Australian Government via the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). A portion of this work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, using funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018F0612) via the Solar Systems Workings programme. Support to M.K. from the DOE CSGF and to D.S. from NASA Award 80NSSC22K0100 are acknowledged. We acknowledge the Magellan Team at JPL and P. James for the Venus data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Fabio A. Capitanio

  2. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Madeleine Kerr & Dave R. Stegman

  3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Suzanne E. Smrekar

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Contributions

F.A.C. conceived the project and conducted the simulations and the post processing. M.K. processed the observables. All authors contributed to the data analysis and the writing.

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Correspondence to Fabio A. Capitanio.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Charitra Jain, Masanori Kameyama and Patrick McGovern for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Alison Hunt, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Initial temperature distribution.

Non-adiabatic mantle temperature contours at T = 1300 °C (left panel) and T = 1100 °C (right panel).

Extended Data Fig. 2 Potential temperature of TCM models.

Models’ potential temperatures are shown for different cohesion σ0 tested.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Model viscosity and square root of the second invariant of the strain rates.

Viscosity η of the model presented in figure 3 at (a) 135 Myr, (b) 156 Myr and (c) 194 Myr. Strain rates of the model at (d) 135 Myr, (e) 156 Myr and (f) 194 Myr.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Elevation of thermochemical TCM models.

The elevation of the models for varying cohesion σ0 tested.

Extended Data Table 1 Parameters used in the simulations
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 List of the models performed
Full size table

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Capitanio, F.A., Kerr, M., Stegman, D.R. et al. Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms. Nat. Geosci. 17, 740–746 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01485-3

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