With the selection of multiple missions to Venus by NASA and ESA planned to launch in the coming decade, we will greatly improve our understanding of Venus as a planet. However, the selected missions cannot tell us anything about the seismicity on Venus, which is a crucial observable to constrain the tectonic activity and geodynamic regime of the planet, and its interior structure. We have gathered an interdisciplinary team of experts in seismology, geology, and geodynamics to assess the seismic activity on Venus from a theoretical and instrumental perspective. We aim to provide estimates of the current seismicity on Venus based on constraints from e.g., geodynamic modelling and surface fault mapping. Using these estimates, we aim to determine the associated ground motion and atmospheric perturbations that can be expected on Venus as a result of seismicity.
To detect these seismic signals eventually during future missions, we will review the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of seismic observation techniques on the surface (e.g., broadband seismometers, distributed acoustic sensing methods), from a balloon, and from orbit.
Consolidating the results from both the theoretical and instrumental parts of this proposal will make a major contribution to understanding the present-day seismicity of Venus and result in recommendations for future payload configurations for Venus missions with seismological science objectives.
Hence, with this international team, we aim to advance the current state-of-the-art of Venus seismology and pave the way for future geophysical mission studies that will extend the Venus science programme beyond the current decade.
For more information, you can find the full proposal for our ISSI team here.
Banner image by Lucía Perez-Diaz: www.luciaperezdiaz.com