We review recent developments in the study of volcanism and tectonics on Venus. Venus’s crust is basaltic, dry, and probably about 30 km thick. The mantle convects, giving rise to plumes, and has a similar composition and mean temperature (∼1300◦C), but a higher viscosity (∼1020 Pa s), than that of the Earth. Inferred melt generation rates constrain the lithospheric thickness to between 80 and ...

Mud volcanoes can be large and long lived geological structures that morphologically resemble magmatic volcanoes. Because of their capricious behaviour and their spectacular morphology and landscapes, mud volcanoes have attracted attention since antiquity. More recently, mud volcanoes have become the focus of extensive studies for natural science research, including geologists and biologists. M...

The role of a mafic component in the petrogenesis of Oceanic Island Basalts (OIBs) is highly debated. As the best studied OIB, Hawaiian lavas provide critical insights into OIB genesis. At a given MgO content, the CaO content in the melt has been used to distinguish between partial melts of peridotite and garnet pyroxenite/eclogite. However, calculations using the BATCH program show that CaO co...

The factors controlling the preparation of volcanic eruptions in monogenetic fields are still poorly understood. The fact that in monogenetic volcanism each eruption has a different vent suggests that volcanic susceptibility has a high degree of randomness, so that accurate forecasting is subjected to a very high uncertainty. Recent studies on monogenetic volcanism reveal how sensitive magma mi...

[1] A comparison of time series of basaltic and silicic eruptions in eastern California over the last 400 kyr with the contemporaneous global record of glaciation suggests that this volcanism is influenced by the growth and retreat of glaciers occurring over periods of about 40 kyr. Statistically significant cross correlations between changes in eruption frequency and the first derivative of th...

The southern Indian Ocean has several prominent aseismic ridges recognized as oceanic large igneous provinces (i.e., the Madagascar Ridge, Del Cano Rise, Crozet Plateau, and Conrad Rise) in off-axis areas of Southwest Ridge (SWIR). However, previously obtained magnetic survey lines are sparse not correctly aligned with seafloor spreading direction; thus, detailed history, including formation th...

Understanding the causes and timings of mass extinctions are important for our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth and how major biogeochemical cycles have been and can be perturbed. Four of the five biggest mass extinctions (1) are associated with large igneous provinces (LIPS), which are the most voluminous volcanic events on Earth, but whether LIPS triggered the extinctions is di...

Massive continental volcanism and/or bolide impacts are considered by many authors to have caused three major mass extinction events during the last 300 million years: the end-Permian, end-Cretaceous and end-Triassic extinctions. However, reevaluation of the frequency of bolide impacts and plume-related flood basalt provinces indicates that both types of event occur much more frequently than ma...

Cryptomaria, lunar volcanic deposits obscured by crater and basin impact ejecta, can provide important information about the thermal and volcanic history of the Moon. The timing of cryptomare deposition has implications for the duration and flux of mare basalt volcanism. In addition, knowing the distribution of cryptomaria can provide information about mantle convection and lunar magma ocean so...