Dr. Montiel published “Regionalized formation and recycling of new Venusian crust at chasmata” in Planetary Science Journal on 2 September 2025. The thesis of the paper is that the majority of Venusian rift systems do not represent a Venusian equivalent to seafloor spreading because seafloor spreading under Venusian conditions doesn’t look very different from what is observed at Mid-Ocean Ridges on Earth. An identified exception is Britomartis Chasma within the Artemis Corona system, where ephemeral subduction has formed what is essentially a massive back-arc basin and a regionally limited example of seafloor spreading.
Figure 5: Figure 5. (a) A pseudo–block diagram showing an example of an asymmetric pseudospreading regime (model case 15). This shows some of the characteristics of this regime: differing crustal thickness on either side of the rift axis, a wide rift with multiple ridges along its length, and an axial ridge–valley system. (b) A pseudo–block diagram showing an example of a symmetric pseudospreading regime (model case 8), with the diagnostic axial valley and raised epaulements.