Early Habitability and Crustal Decarbonation of a Stagnant‐Lid Venus

Höning, Dennis; Baumeister, Philipp; Grenfell, John Lee; Tosi, Nicola; Way, Michael

doi:10.1029/2021je006895

Cited by 19 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Modelling results from a coupled interior-atmosphere model of a stagnant lid Venus assuming different planetary albedos, after the solidification of the magma ocean (Höning et al 2021). The model assumes an initially thin atmosphere containing only the present-day N 2 inventory.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3-D general circulation models by Way and Del Genio (2020) indicate that cloud feedbacks of a slowly rotating early Venus would result in a planetary albedo between 0.5 and 0.6, sufficiently high to potentially allow for liquid surface water on early Venus. Coupled atmosphere-interior models that include silicate weathering, carbonate burial and metamorphic decarbonation (Höning et al 2021) indicate that for planetary albedos in this range an early stagnant lid Venus could have been habitable for up to 1 Gyr, followed by evaporation of water and dramatic rise of atmospheric CO 2 (Fig. 9).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Long-Term Evolution of the Atmosphere of Venus: Processes and Feedback Mechanisms

et al. 2022

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This work reviews the long-term evolution of the atmosphere of Venus, and modulation of its composition by interior/exterior cycling. The formation and evolution of Venus’s atmosphere, leading to contemporary surface conditions, remain hotly debated topics, and involve questions that tie into many disciplines. We explore these various inter-related mechanisms which shaped the evolution of the atmosphere, starting with the volatile sources and sinks. Going from the deep interior to the top of the atmosphere, we describe volcanic outgassing, surface-atmosphere interactions, and atmosphere escape. Furthermore, we address more complex aspects of the history of Venus, including the role of Late Accretion impacts, how magnetic field generation is tied into long-term evolution, and the implications of geochemical and geodynamical feedback cycles for atmospheric evolution. We highlight plausible end-member evolutionary pathways that Venus could have followed, from accretion to its present-day state, based on modeling and observations. In a first scenario, the planet was desiccated by atmospheric escape during the magma ocean phase. In a second scenario, Venus could have harbored surface liquid water for long periods of time, until its temperate climate was destabilized and it entered a runaway greenhouse phase. In a third scenario, Venus’s inefficient outgassing could have kept water inside the planet, where hydrogen was trapped in the core and the mantle was oxidized. We discuss existing evidence and future observations/missions required to refine our understanding of the planet’s history and of the complex feedback cycles between the interior, surface, and atmosphere that have been operating in the past, present or future of Venus.

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Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long-Term Evolution of the Atmosphere of Venus: Processes and Feedback Mechanisms

et al. 2022

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“…This is an important point, since Gaillard & Scaillet (2014) showed that volcanic degassing chemistry is dependent upon atmospheric pressure. In addition, the role of land and seafloor weathering and their ability to remove CO 2 from the atmosphere is an important consideration for whether the planet is in a modern Earth-like plate tectonic mode with land and seafloor weathering (e.g., Walker et al 1981;Berner & Caldeira 1997;Krissansen-Totton et al 2018;Graham & Pierrehumbert 2020) or even a stagnant lid (e.g., Foley & Smye 2018;Höning et al 2021). These works demonstrate that the exact conditions for producing a runaway greenhouse will require sophisticated climate modeling that is outside the scope of the present work.…”

Section: Lip Simultaneity In the Context Of A Superimposed Climatic S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale Volcanism and the Heat Death of Terrestrial Worlds

Way¹,

Ernst²,

Scargle³

2022

Planet. Sci. J.

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Large-scale volcanism has played a critical role in the long-term habitability of Earth. Contrary to widely held belief, volcanism, rather than impactors, has had the greatest influence on and bears most of the responsibility for large-scale mass extinction events throughout Earth’s history. We examine the timing of large igneous provinces (LIPs) throughout Earth’s history to estimate the likelihood of nearly simultaneous events that could drive a planet into an extreme moist or runaway greenhouse, leading to the end of volatile cycling and causing the heat death of formerly temperate terrestrial worlds. In one approach, we make a conservative estimate of the rate at which sets of near-simultaneous LIPs (pairs, triplets, and quartets) occur in a random history statistically the same as Earth’s. We find that LIPs closer in time than 0.1–1 million yr are likely; significantly, this is less than the time over which terrestrial LIP environmental effects are known to persist. In another approach, we assess the cumulative effects with simulated time series consisting of randomly occurring LIP events with realistic time profiles. Both approaches support the conjecture that environmental impacts of LIPs, while narrowly avoiding grave effects on the climate history of Earth, could have been responsible for the heat death of our sister world Venus.

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“…If liquid water was present at the surface of Venus in its past then the planet’s slow rotation rate would have enabled a stabilising cloud-climate feedback mechanism to be established 17 , maintaining habitable surface conditions despite the increasing Solar luminosity over time. This phase of habitability could have lasted for up to ~900 Myrs if Venus has always been in a stagnant lid tectonic regime 18 , or if early Venus had Earth-like plate tectonics then this habitable period could have lasted for up to 4 Gyrs, until runaway greenhouse was instigated by voluminous magmatism 17 . In contrast, other modelling has suggested that, due to its proximity to the Sun, Venus could never have cooled sufficiently for liquid water to condense at the surface following its magma ocean phase, and thus a stabilising cloud feedback could never have been established 19 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposed energy-metabolisms cannot explain the atmospheric chemistry of Venus

2022

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Life in the clouds of Venus, if present in sufficiently high abundance, must be affecting the atmospheric chemistry. It has been proposed that abundant Venusian life could obtain energy from its environment using three possible sulfur energy-metabolisms. These metabolisms raise the possibility of Venus’s enigmatic cloud-layer SO2-depletion being caused by life. We here couple each proposed energy-metabolism to a photochemical-kinetics code and self-consistently predict the composition of Venus’s atmosphere under the scenario that life produces the observed SO2-depletion. Using this photo-bio-chemical kinetics code, we show that all three metabolisms can produce SO2-depletions, but do so by violating other observational constraints on Venus’s atmospheric chemistry. We calculate the maximum possible biomass density of sulfur-metabolising life in the clouds, before violating observational constraints, to be ~10−5 − 10−3 mg m−3. The methods employed are equally applicable to aerial biospheres on Venus-like exoplanets, planets that are optimally poised for atmospheric characterisation in the near future.

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Early Habitability and Crustal Decarbonation of a Stagnant‐Lid Venus

Cited by 19 publications

References 93 publications

The Long-Term Evolution of the Atmosphere of Venus: Processes and Feedback Mechanisms

The Long-Term Evolution of the Atmosphere of Venus: Processes and Feedback Mechanisms

Large-scale Volcanism and the Heat Death of Terrestrial Worlds

Proposed energy-metabolisms cannot explain the atmospheric chemistry of Venus

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