A study of the composition, structure, and properties of Venusian rocks was carried out by Venera 13 and Venera 14. The main structural‐morphological types of provinces of the Venus surface were chosen for the study. The chemical and mineralogical composition of the rock at the Venera 13 landing site shows that it belongs to a group of weakly differentiated melanocratic alkaline gabbroids; at the Venera 14 landing site, the rock is similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalts. A most interesting property of the surface rocks is the great number of the strata that were visible in panoramas of the landing sites. Measurements of their physical and mechanical properties show that Venusian rocks have friable, weakly cemented porous structures. Analysis of information from Venera 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14 led to the conclusion that the most likely global process responsible for the formation of the present rock is volcanic eruption. Moreover, due to the high gas content of basaltic melts, eruptions are of an explosive character leading to the formation of pyroclastic rocks. Summing up data obtained by Venera enabled us to compare Venus with the earth, Mars, and the moon, to point out some regular global features in the evolution of these bodies, and to suggest some new problems for investigation.
Venera 13 and Venera 14 have determined for the first time ever the elemental composition of the Venusian rocks at the probes' landing sites. To study Venusian rocks, rolling upland and flat lowland have been chosen as the most typical of the entire planetary surface. Venera 13 landed on the rolling upland, while Venera 14 landed in the region with lower topography. The chemical composition of the rock at the Venera 13 landing site proved to be similar to the composition of potassium alkaline basalts of the earth's crust, rocks which can be found on oceanic islands and in rift zones. The chemical composition of the rock at the Venera 14 landing site is similar to that of tholeiitic basalts of the oceanic crust of the earth. The comparison of new data on the composition of Venusian rocks with the composition of the rocks of similar provinces on the earth and the moon shows that the evolution of the surface and crust of Venus was not similar to that of the earth and especially not that of the moon.
Surface of VenusThe surface of Venus as photographed by the Venera 13 landing module, which is seen at bottom of photo. The temperature at the surface at the time this photo was taken was approximately 450 °C (855 °F)Early in March of this year a descent module from the Soviet Venera 13 spacecraft touched down on the surface of Venus. Its mission on the planet included the first detailed analysis of Venusian surface rocks by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and the first, color photographs of the surface of the planet. The Russians originally anticipated that about 30 min of data collection would be possible before the module succumbed to the harsh surface conditions, but the craft unexpectedly continued to send signals for over two hours. Four days later a second Russian descent module, this one from the Venera 14 space probe, landed 600 miles from the first site, where it performed further analytical and physical testing and photography.
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