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Science 6 May 1994:
Vol. 264. no. 5160, pp. 798 - 803
DOI: 10.1126/science.264.5160.798
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Articles

Global Variations in the Geoid/Topography Admittance of Venus

Mark Simons 1, Bradford H. Hager 1, and Sean C. Solomon 2

1 Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.

Global representations of geoid height and topography are used to map variations in the geoid/topography ratio (admittance) of Venus. The admittance values are permissive of two mutually exclusive models for convection-driven topography. In the first, compressive highland plateaus are expressions of present mantle downwelling, broad volcanic rises are expressions of mantle upwelling, and lowlands overlie regions with no substantial vertical motion in the mantle. In the second, compressive highland plateaus are remnants of an earlier regime of high crustal strain, and most other long-wavelength topographic variations arise from normal convective tractions at the base of the lithosphere.


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