ETH Zurich Simulations Suggest Venus Rift Valleys May Be Geologically Young

For decades, planetary scientists regarded Venus as a geologically stagnant world—a scorched, toxic neighbor where some estimates put rift formation more than 100 million years ago. But new high-resolution, three-dimensional computer models built by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich suggest that reports of the planet’s tectonic death were greatly exaggerated.

ETH Zurich 3D Models Challenge Decades of Assumptions

The research, published in Nature Geoscience, centers on enormous lowland rift valleys etched across the Venusian surface. While similar formations exist on Earth—such as the East African Rift and Siberia’s Lake Baikal—the Venusian versions stretch across astronomical distances, reaching up to 10,000 kilometers long.

Previous attempts to model these features relied on simplified, two-dimensional assumptions about how planetary materials behave. To overcome those limitations, lead author Xi Yang and colleagues under the supervision of Taras Gerya, Professor of Geodynamics at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, created advanced 3D thermomechanical simulations.

These detailed simulations allowed the team to analyze three major rift systems: Ganis Chasma, Dali Chasma, and Davana Chasma. The models indicated that broad elevated ridges known as rift flanks form along the edges of these valleys while the rifts are still geologically young, appearing either during active movement or shortly after it ceases.

Rapid Crustal Relaxation Replaces Terrestrial Erosion

One of the most striking differences between Earth and its planetary neighbor lies in how these mountain-like rift flanks evolve over time. On Earth, erosion gradually wears down mountains and other landforms. On Venus, however, the models reveal a different physical driver.

ETH Zurich Simulations Reveal Venus Is Geologically Active

The simulations show that Venusian rift flanks flatten out relatively quickly once tectonic stretching stops because the underlying crust relaxes. As a rift system ages, its ridges become lower, broader, and less steep. By comparing these simulated shapes with archival radar imagery captured by the Magellan probe during its 1990s mission, the researchers found a striking match.

The computer model predicts that these vast rifts open at a rate of roughly 3 to 10 centimeters per year, driven by mantle plumes—columns of hot rock rising from deep within the planet’s interior. This rapid movement implies that the rifts either remain active today or became dormant only within the past few million years.

Gerya added that the findings demonstrate Venus remains an active planet with a more dynamic interior than had been previously believed, noting that the world even hosts active volcanoes.

Upcoming NASA and ESA Missions to Test the Models

The newly refined computer models arrive just as international space agencies prepare a slate of return visits to the second rock from the Sun. ETH geophysics professors Paul Tackley and Taras Gerya are already collaborating directly with the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission, helping to develop specialized instruments designed to examine the Venusian surface, subsurface, and upper atmosphere.

The European Space Agency is planning an unmanned orbital mission to Venus in 2031, which will survey the planet in greater detail. Researchers hope the mission data will confirm whether current tectonic activity persists and provide sharper insights into how terrestrial rocky planets form across our solar system—and eventually, how to spot rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars.