A heat pipe mechanism for volcanism and tectonics on Venus

A heat pipe mechanism is proposed for the transport of heat through the lithosphere on Venus. This mechanism allows the crust and lithosphere on Venus to be greater than 150 km thick. A thick crust and thick lithosphere can explain the high observed topography and large associated gravity anomalies. For a 150-km-thick lithosphere the required volcanic flux on Venus is 200 km3/yr; this is compared with a flux of 17 km3/yr associated with the formation of the oceanic crust on Earth. A thick basaltic crust on Venus is expected to transform to eclogite at a depth of 60 to 80 km; the dense eclogite would contribute the lithospheric delamination that returns the crust to the interior of the planet completing the heat pipe cycle. Topography and the associated gravity anomalies can be explained by Airy compensation of the thick crust. The principal observation that is contrary to this hypothesis is the mean age of the surface that is inferred from crater statistics; the minimum mean age is about 130 Ma, and this implies an upper limit of 2 km3/yr for the surface volcanic flux. If the heat pipe mechanism was applicable on Earth in the Archean, it would provide the thick lithosphere implied by isotopic data from diamonds