Surprisingly Stable Mantle Plumes and Coronae Clustering on Venus 

Coronae are crown-like, tectono-volcanic features found on Venus. Coronae formation models invoke warm upwelling mantle diapers impinging on the base of the lithosphere. With >500 coronae it is difficult to imagine that each is linked to a unique mantle plume. In this talk, I will explore the connection between coronae, diapers, and mantle plumes. My hypothesis is that a plume anchored in the lower mantle will give rise to clusters of upper mantle diapers. The clusters I find resemble a pattern of stable plumes (surprisingly stable plumes) that are found in geodynamic models. I will discuss the implications of stable plumes and coronae clusters for the evolution of Venus.

Vita: My research focuses on the interior evolution of the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. I use numerical models along with the global gravity and topography to test hypotheses regarding the formation and evolution of features on and within terrestrial planets. I obtained my PhD from Caltech in 1990 working on subduction zones. As a postdoc at Scripps Institution of Oceanography I inverted for mantle viscosity constrained by the geoid. Over the years, I’ve expanded my research to Mars, Mercury, and Venus. I’ve been a member of the Dawn at Ceres and InSight mission science teams and I’m currently a member of the VenSAR instrument team. VenSAR is the NASA contributed SAR for the upcoming ESA EnVision mission to Venus.