Iron Mineralogy of Venus' Surface Investigated by M�ssbauer Spectroscopy

Oxidation of CO on surface hematite in high CO2 atmospheres

“…For modern Venus, several studies have suggested the presence of hematite on the surface (e.g. Fegley et al, 1995;Klingelhöfer and Fegley, Roatsch et al, 2008). However, some works have questioned whether magnetite may be more stable at the surface (Wood, 1996), with hematite favoured near mountain tops (Fegley et al, 1997).…”

“…In the following we assume a 1% surface coverage of hematite, which is the lower limit suggested by Klingelhöfer and Fegley (2000) and an amount of observed O 2 (g) equal to the upper limit of (3x10 -7 ) volume mixing ratio (vmr) in Venus' atmosphere (Trauger and Lunine, 1983). Table 2 shows the global rate of CO 2 production in 10 15 g yr -1 (i.e.…”