This is an image of Venus.
Click on image for full size
NASA
Does Venus Have a Surface in Motion?
Like Mars, there is no plate tectonics on the surface of Venus. The surface of Venus does not *seem* to have changed or moved in billions of years. Unlike the case of Mars, however, careful examination of the evidence supports the idea that the surface of Venus may be active in a way that is very different from the Earth.
Evidence comes from the number of craters found on the surface. Although heavy cratering has stopped, some cratering continues to this day. The impact of the SL-9 comet shows that planets can still be hit by objects in space. Craters are wiped out when the surface of a planet moves.
The cratering record of Venus is *very* peculiar in that
- all surfaces are evenly cratered
- the number of craters is roughly the same as that of the Earth at present.
- the number of craters suggests an age for the surface of Venus of not more than 500 million years! (There are areas of Earth that are very much older.)
Features which suggest a lithosphere in motion are present, but few on Venus. This evidence suggests that Venus has a completely different
cooling history than that of the Earth, and the entire surface is forced to change every few hundred million years or so!
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