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Accepted · first revision · record

Title: What tectonic regime operates on Venus, and was it resurfaced catastrophically?
Plain: Venus has few craters, spread almost randomly, so its whole surface is only a few hundred million years old. Whether it was repaved all at once or gradually, and how active it is now, is unknown.
Precise: The roughly 1000 nearly randomly distributed impact craters imply a mean surface age of about 0.3 to 1 Gyr. Classify the resurfacing history (catastrophic global event, equilibrium resurfacing, episodic lid overturn, plume-induced subduction at coronae) and measure present volcanic and tectonic activity rates. An answer is a resurfacing model consistent with crater statistics and with measured present-day deformation and eruption rates.
Settled by: High-resolution radar imaging and repeat-pass interferometry from upcoming Venus orbiters measuring active deformation and eruption.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: classification
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: A 2023 reanalysis of Magellan radar images (Herrick and Hensley, Science 2023, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm7735) reported a changing volcanic vent, implying present activity.
Posed since: (empty)