Study Questions Week 3

Major Points/Questions from the video "Venus Unveiled"

1) What is a "runaway greenhouse" effect?

2) What are major mechanisms of heat loss for planets?

3) Is there evidence for major tectonics on Venus? Is there evidence for major current volcanic activity on Venus?

4) How did the Magellan spacecraft map the surface of Venus?

5) What are two important points about the distribution of impact craters on Venus, and what do they tell us?

6) Explain "catastrophism" versus "uniformitarianism".

7) What is the expected relative strengths of surface rocks on Venus compare to those on Earth? Why are they different?

8) Explain the controversy in the thick or thin lithosphere debate. How is this related to heat loss?

9) Describe the overall picture of Venus’s geologic history that is presented in the video. Is this model universally accepted?

Discussion questions from the "Scientific American" article:

1) What mechanisms are responsible for how planets loose heat? Which is most important on Venus? Which is most important on Earth? Mars is smaller, and probably cooled much more quickly than Earth or Venus. Based on this, what do you predict about these processes on Mars?

2) Describe the observations of impact craters on Venus. What are the implications of these observations?

3) Explain how the "greenhouse" effect works. What greenhouse gases are found in the atmosphere of Venus? How does formation of clouds impact on the greenhouse effect? Which of the greenhouse gases form clouds?

4) In the article, what evidence is presented that Venus was once much hotter than it is today?

5) What happens to water in the upper atmosphere of a planet?

6) Summarize the model presented in the Scientific American article of what happened to Venus's atmosphere after a massive episode which repaved the planet approximately 800 million years ago.

7) What evidence suggest that there is current (or at least recent) volcanic activity on Venus?

1) Describe the general characteristics of Venus. Be able to recognize a visual (as opposed to radar) image of Venus.

2) When was Magellan at Venus?

3) How did Magellan map the surface of Venus.

4) What are the significant findings from the Magellan mission?

5) Why does Venus have no magnetic field?

6) What are the major processes that modify planetary surfaces? Which is most important on Mercury? On Venus? On Earth?

7) Describe how the major surface features (e.g. mountain ranges, mid-ocean ridges, deep ocean trenches) of Earth are related to plate tectonics.

8) What is differentiation of a planet?

Study questions from other weeks: