It seems that the consensus and much quoted hypothesis that the high temperatures on Venus are the result of runaway global warming caused by lots of co2 in its atmosphere might have taken a bit of a nose dive this week. The story can be viewed in a variety of places – see for instance http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/acitve-volcanos-on-venus-heat-…
The ESA mission to Venus spotted hot spots on IR images after earlier noting large changes in sulphur levels (see also www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/06/Brightness_changes_in_Ganiki_Ch…) …
ESAs Venus Express found the best evidence yet for active volcanism on Earth's nearest neighbour. Actually imaging the Venus surface is extremely difficult because of the dense atmosphere. Radar observations by previous missions to Venus have also determined it as a world covered in volcanoes and lava flows. However, it was not know if Venus was still active – and assumed the volcanism occurred many millions of years ago. Now, it seems, Venus is still very active.
The relevant paper was published in Geophysical Research Letters by Eugene Shalygin and team and they describe earlier missions (and findings), the Venus Express mission, the geology and the science. Magellan data covers 97 per cent of the planet – so it has been looked at pretty comprehensively. Runaway global warming as a result of high levels of co2 in the atmosphere has taken a hit as the heat at the surface is explainable, by observation and measurement, by vlocanism. Nothing to do with co2 levels in the atmosphere. T Channon, the author of the blog post, adds – so this is what runaway AGW looks like. Anything to add ESA? – or the other lot?
At http://phys.org/print353843766.html … the above paper is reviewed and there is a picture of the geology of Venus superimposed on the topography (reproduced below)
which shows a broad rise in the centre of the region with radiating spokes surrounding a volcanic plain (or lower topography). A large volcano shown in the centre is several hundred miles across. Radiating from this are numerous tectonic faults and rifts (shown as purple) which are thought to be regions of stretched and faulted crust material. Parts of this are now known to be still active – if not the whole kaboodle. Venus in general, and the rift zones in particular, continue to be sites of volcanic and tectonic activity.
It seems that there is nothing about Venus that contradicts Velikovsky – as far as the source of the heat is concerned. He proposed it was a recent arrival in the solar system which is conjecture, as he thought that might account for the volcanism. It would seem that back in the 1940s the idea Venus was volcanic was not thought to be surprising – and may have been picked up by Velikovsky from scientific literature of the period. The mainstream view that runaway greenhouse gases caused Venus to overheat came somewhat later, and the idea went on to fuel the global warming alarmism on planet Earth. If runaway global warming is not true in respect of Venus it is likewise highly unlikely as a cause of rising temperatures on Earth. In fact, most of the hype involves projections of a small and fairly insignificant rise in temperatures in the 1990s – mostly caused by a surfeit of El Nino's – into the future. The fact that warming is in a hiatus shows such projections are fanciful – and completely erroneous. However, with so much tax payer money sloshing around and filling the pockets of the great and the good this is not about to change. It will only be when Joe Public decides not to ignore CAGW and take a more active role in protesting the cost of his electricity bills and the waste of public expenditure (when other things are being forced to make cut backs) that anything will change. Politicos will take notice of Joe Public when he gets angry – but not before.