Resurfacing on Venus

The resurfacing evolution of Venus has been evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations. For the first time, the sizes of volcanic flows in the models were generated using the frequency–size distribution of volcanic units measured on Venus. A non-homogeneous spatial generation of volcanic units was included in the models reproducing the Beta–Alta–Themis volcanic anomaly. Crater modification is simulated using a 3D approach. The final number of modified craters and randomness of the crater population were used to evaluate the success of the models, comparing the results from our simulations with Venus observations. The randomness of the crater population is evaluated using pair-correlation statistics. On the one hand, a catastrophic resurfacing event followed by moderate volcanic activity covering ≈40% of the planetary surface can reproduce the number of modified craters and the pair-correlation statistics do not reject randomness. On the other hand, the pair-correlation test for equilibrium steady-state resurfacing models rejects the randomness of the crater population when reproducing the observed frequency–size distribution of the volcanic units with a non-homogeneous spatial generation of volcanic units.