Volcanism and its role in Climate on Venus

There has clearly been significant volcanic activity on the surface of Venus in recent geological epochs and there is a great deal of indirect evidence that this may continue at the present time. However, the current level of activity is unknown and remains controversial, with estimates for the rate of emission of volcanic gases into the atmosphere ranging from essentially quiescent to very high levels, possibly orders of magnitude greater than those currently found on Earth. This large uncertainty makes it difficult to evaluate the importance of volcanism to the present-day climate on Venus, or to estimate how conditions at the surface might change in the distant future when volcanism subsides.