Discovery of a hidden Lava tunnel beneath Venus

 Scientists for the first time discover the existence of a giant volcanic cave on Venus             

For the first time, scientists have strong evidence that a huge volcanic cave lies beneath the surface of Venus. Venus skylight in the Nyx Mons region reveals a subsurface cave, hypothesized to be a lava tube. The feature was identified through analysis of radar images acquired by the SAR instrument aboard the NASA Magellan mission. Scientists have uncovered evidence of a gigantic empty lava tunnel beneath Venus, revealing a hidden volcanic world on Earth’s mysterious twin. Volcanic landscapes are not limited to Earth. Scientists have previously identified signs of volcanic activity, including lava tubes, on Mars and the Moon. Now, researchers at the University of Trento have found compelling evidence that Venus also contains an empty lava tube beneath its surface. This finding adds to growing evidence that volcanism has played a major role in shaping Venus’s surface and geological history. By reanalyzing radar images from NASA’s Magellan mission, a team has identified what appears to be a giant lava tube under the volcano Nyx Mons. 

The underground structure was detected through the analysis of radar data as part of a research project funded by the Italian Space Agency. Because Venus is wrapped in thick clouds, standard cameras cannot see the surface. Magellan used Synthetic Aperture Radar in the early 1990s to build a global map instead. Those radar data are now paying off again. Using techniques first tested on lava tubes on the Moon and on Earth, the Italian team treated the radar image like an X-ray of the terrain. By measuring the length of the radar brightening inside pit A and the size of the shadow it casts, they could estimate the shape of the hidden void. The work, published in the journal Nature Communications, marks the first direct radar evidence of a subsurface conduit on our neighboring world. The newly described structure sits on the western flank of Nyx Mons, a shield volcano about 362 km's wide. In radar images, the key feature looks like a dark pit surrounded by a chain of similar collapses. The researchers call this standout depression “pit A. On most pits, the radar signal paints a simple picture of a steep hole. Pit A behaves differently. Its radar echo includes a bright, asymmetric streak which stretches well beyond the rim. According to the team, the pattern matches what is seen when radar waves enter a skylight, bounce along an underground tunnel and then scatter back to the spacecraft sensors. In other words, pit A is probably a skylight, the collapsed roof of a lava tube that once carried molten rock beneath the surface.

From 1990 to 1992, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft mapped Venus using a Synthetic Aperture Radar system. The research team examined Magellan’s radar images in areas showing signs of localized surface collapse. Using an imaging technique they developed to identify underground conduits near skylights, they detected a large subsurface structure in the Nyx Mons region. "We analyzed Magellan’s radar images where there are signs of localized surface collapses using an imaging technique that we have developed to detect and characterize underground conduits near skylights. Our analyses revealed the existence of a large subsurface conduit in the region of Nyx Mons. We interpret the structure as a possible lava tube (pyroduct), with an estimated diameter of approximately one km, a roof thickness of at least 150 meters, and an empty void deep of no less than 375 meters,” says Bruzzone. Magellan’s Radar System displayed several pit chains and the identified skylight, marked as A, potentially providing access to the subsurface. The results point to an enormous conduit. The tube is roughly 1 km wide on average, with a roof at least 150 meters thick and an empty space below which is no less than about 375 meters high. Radar echoes show the signal traveling inside the tube for at least 300 meters from the skylight. Based on the alignment of nearby pits and the slope of the surrounding terrain, the full system may extend for around 45 km beneath Nyx Mons. For comparison, famous lava tubes on Earth such as Cueva de los Verdes on Lanzarote reach widths of only a few tens of meters. The Venusian tube dwarfs them.

“Our knowledge of Venus is still limited, and until now we have never had the opportunity to directly observe processes occurring beneath the surface of Earth’s twin planet. The identification of a volcanic cavity is therefore of particular importance, as it allows us to validate theories that for many years have only hypothesized their existence,” explains Lorenzo Bruzzone, the coordinator of the research, full professor of Telecommunications and head of the Remote Sensing Laboratory at the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Trento. “This discovery contributes to a deeper understanding of the processes that have shaped Venus’s evolution and opens new perspectives for the study of the planet,” he adds. Lava tubes are more than geological curiosities. They preserve a record of how a planet’s volcanoes erupted and cooled over time. On Mars and the Moon, they are also seen as potential natural shelters for future explorers, since solid rock walls can block harmful radiation and micrometeorites. On Venus, with surface temperatures above 450 degrees Celsius and pressures more than ninety times higher than on Earth, no one is setting up camp inside Nyx Mons any time soon. Still, the discovery is a big deal. Venus is often described as Earth’s twin which took a very different path, ending up with a runaway greenhouse atmosphere rich in CO2 and clouds of sulfuric acid. Understanding how its volcanoes work helps researchers piece together how the planet lost any past oceans and became the extreme world we see today. Volcanic plumbing ties directly into how gas moves between the interior and the atmosphere, which is central to long-term climate evolution.

Conditions on Venus may actually favor the formation of unusually large lava tubes. The planet’s lower gravity and dense atmosphere could allow molten lava to quickly develop a thick, insulating crust once it flows away from a volcanic vent. This crust would help preserve large underground channels as lava continues to move beneath the surface. The lava tube identified by the researchers appears to be both wider and taller than lava tubes found on Earth or those predicted for Mars. Its size places it at the upper end of what scientists have proposed, and in one instance observed, on the Moon. This scale is consistent with other volcanic features on Venus, including lava channels which are longer and larger than those seen on other rocky planets. There is also a practical angle. Radar data show that lava channels and collapse chains are common on Venus. If one lava tube this large can hide in thirty year old images, many more may be waiting in the archives and on the surface. That is why the team stresses that their analysis is probably just scratching the surface. Locating lava tubes on other planets is extremely challenging. Because these structures form underground, they typically remain hidden from view. They are usually discovered only when a section of the roof collapses, leaving a pit which can be seen at the surface. These surface openings can point to the presence of a lava tube and may also indicate a possible entrance.

On Venus, the task is even more difficult. Thick clouds permanently blanket the planet, blocking direct observation with traditional cameras. As a result, scientists must rely on radar imaging to study the surface and what lies beneath it. Future orbiters will be able to check this candidate cave in far more detail. The European Space Agency’s planned EnVision mission and NASA VERITAS will both carry new radar instruments with resolutions down to a few tens of meters. One of them, EnVision’s Subsurface Radar Sounder, is designed to send radio waves a few hundred meters below the surface, exactly the depth of the Nyx Mons tube. In practical terms, this means upcoming spacecraft could not only confirm the size of this cavern near pit A but also map intact lava tubes that show no surface collapses at all. Step by step, scientists would get a three-dimensional picture of Venusian volcanic systems, something that has never been possible before. “The available data allow us to confirm and measure only the portion of the cavity close to the skylight. However, analysis of the morphology and elevation of the surrounding terrain, together with the presence of other pits similar with the one studied, supports the hypothesis that the subsurface conduits may extend for at least 45 km's,” Bruzzone explains. “Our discovery therefore represents only the beginning of a long and fascinating research activity,” he concludes. “To test this hypothesis and identify additional lava tubes, new higher-resolution images and data acquired by radar systems capable of penetrating the surface will be required. The results of this study are therefore very important for future missions to Venus, such as the European Space Agency’s Envision and NASA’s Veritas.”

For people following climate news on Earth, this kind of planetary geology might seem far away from the daily worry about energy use or the electric bill. Yet Venus offers a sobering example of how a rocky world with roughly Earth’s size can end up with crushing air pressure and oven-like temperatures when greenhouse gases dominate the atmosphere. The more we learn about its volcanoes and buried tunnels, the better we can understand how planets tip from habitable to hostile. Both missions will carry advanced radar instruments designed to produce sharper surface images, allowing scientists to analyze small pits in far greater detail. Envision will also include an orbital ground penetrating radar (Subsurface Radar Sounder) capable of probing several hundred meters below the surface and potentially detecting underground conduits even when no surface openings are visible.

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Ancient Antarctic ice cycles

 Ocean productivity Vs Antarctica’s Ancient Ice Cycles 

Cycles in the growth and decay of Antarctica’s ice sheets once shaped marine biological productivity thousands of miles away in the subtropical ocean, according to new research led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the obliquity cycle, a 40,000-year astronomical cycle tied to changes in Earth’s axial tilt, influenced ocean productivity in subtropical latitudes about 34 million years ago, when the Antarctic ice sheet was first expanding. UW–Madison study links Antarctic ice sheet growth and decay to a 40,000-year rhythm in subtropical marine productivity. Research suggests that ancient shifts in Antarctica’s ice sheets may have influenced ocean life far beyond the polar regions. Scientists found that a subtle astronomical cycle tied to Earth’s tilt unexpectedly shaped biological productivity in distant subtropical waters millions of years ago. 

Ancient Antarctic ice sheet cycles affected subtropical ocean productivity by altering nutrient circulation. The 40,000-year obliquity cycle played an unexpectedly strong role, revealing deep global climate connections. Fluctuations in Antarctica’s ice sheets once influenced marine life far beyond the polar regions, shaping biological productivity in subtropical oceans thousands of miles away. This conclusion comes from new research. The finding surprised researchers because the 40,000-year cycle, while an important factor in the conditions at Earth’s poles, typically has a more limited influence on climate and ocean conditions near the equator. “We generally expect other astronomical cycles to have a greater influence,” says Stephen Meyers, a professor of geoscience at UW–Madison. This result surprised researchers because the 40,000-year cycle, although important at the poles, usually has a weaker effect on climate and ocean conditions closer to the equator. However, the team found a clear and dominant impact from the 40,000-year cycle on subtropical marine productivity over a span of about 1 million years, a period tied to the early growth of the Antarctic ice sheets around 34 million years ago.

Yet the researchers noted a strong, singular influence of the 40,000-year cycle on the ancient subtropical ocean’s bioproductivity, across a 1-million-year interval of time which is associated with the first expansion of the Antarctic ice sheets around 34 million years ago. “This tells us that bioproductivity is being influenced by a distant high-latitude process, through nutrient delivery to the lower latitudes,” Meyers says. The team arrived at this conclusion by analyzing chemical signals preserved in ocean sediment that record past biological productivity. The sediments were collected during ocean drilling expeditions from 2020-2022 aboard the now-retired scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution. For decades, the vessel recovered ocean sediment cores to study Earth’s oceans and their geological history, funded by the US National Science Foundation and 23 collaborating countries. “The vessel has provided archives that ground huge scientific discoveries related to global climate events, evolution of life, and plate tectonics,” says Alexandra Villa , who co-led the study with Meyers as a PhD student at UW–Madison and participated in the expedition. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at MARUM in Bremen, Germany, where she continues working with ocean drilling data. Oscar Cavazos (Marine Laboratory Specialist, IODP JRSO) also joined other marine techs in preparing the core new to be sectioned on the catwalk. 

When the Antarctic ice sheet emerged about 34 million years ago, it altered circulation patterns and the movement of nutrients through the oceans. “And when the ice sheet became large enough to extend to the Southern Ocean, the 40,000-year obliquity rhythm of the marine-based ice sheets impacted the delivery of nutrients to our subtropical site,” Villa says. The new research builds on previous UW–Madison studies which showed how strongly the 40,000-year obliquity cycle affects marine-based ice sheets. The sediment cores allowed scientists to reconstruct how life in subtropical oceans responded to changes in the Antarctic ice sheet occurring thousands of miles away. To understand this connection, “it’s first important to think about how ocean circulation is linked to bioproductivity,” says Villa. “Today, about three-quarters of all marine bioproductivity north of 30 degrees south of the equator is supported by nutrients derived from Southern Ocean circulation, this is the ocean that surrounds Antarctica,” says Villa. “The nutrient-filled Southern Ocean water sinks, then makes its way to the lower latitudes, where it is mixed upward to the surface, influencing bioproductivity.” This research received support from the National Science Foundation (OCE-1450528), the Heising-Simons Foundation (2021-2797), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and UW–Madison.

Now, scientists are able to connect this cycle to global ocean dynamics with far-ranging effects. Indeed, the new findings highlight how tightly connected Earth’s climate system is. “The Earth System is so interconnected, and changes in one part of the planet can ripple out in surprising ways,” Meyers says. “The polar ice sheets and global ocean circulation are important ways this manifests, impacting marine food webs far from the ice sheet. Our study shows how dynamic, variable and sometimes surprising, these ‘global teleconnections’ can be.” This work builds on earlier UW–Madison research showing the strong influence of the 40,000-year obliquity cycle on marine-based ice sheets. Scientists can now link this cycle to broader ocean circulation patterns with effects which extend across the globe, underscoring the tight connections within Earth’s climate system in the universe.

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