Active Volcxanoes Revealed on Venus

reply to post by eriktheawful

The article this goes on quite clearly to explain why a "runaway greenhouse effect" is not a myth on Venus.

I don’t feel that it “quite clearly“ explains it. But it’s a start
From this article;

It is worth noting that the term runaway greenhouse refers to a specific process when discussed by planetary scientists, and simply having a very hot, high-CO2 atmosphere is not it.

Venus also has a very high albedo which ends up over-compensating for the distance to the sun, so the absorbed solar energy by Venus is less than that for Earth.

Venusian clouds also generate a greenhouse effect, although they are not as good infrared absorbers/emitters as water clouds.

To get a true runaway greenhouse, you need a conspiracy of solar radiation and the availability of some greenhouse gas in equilibrium with a surface reservoir…For Earth, or Venus in a runaway greenhouse phase, the condensable substance of interest is water

So Venus needed an ocean to cause this runaway event to start?

Venus may never actually encountered a true runaway, there is still debate over this.

Venus likely underwent a runaway or “moist greenhouse” phase

I don’t know how likely this is but the debate is there and many questions await more data.

I would like to add that I found this link for you as I was trying to help you prove your point with something other than Wiki.

I mentioned the testing of the attributes of CO2 that have been tested extensively in labs.
You stated that is not acceptable because that is here on Earth and not on Venus.

The nature of CO2 and the observed amounts on Venus does not mean there was a runaway greenhouse effect. ”It is worth noting that the term runaway greenhouse refers to a specific process when discussed by planetary scientists, and simply having a very hot, high-CO2 atmosphere is not it.” There are many other factors that need to be involved.

It's [CO2] freezing point, boiling point, and ability to act the way it does, does not change from planet to planet.

But pressure changes these things. There are also other variables on Venus (past and present) to consider many of which we are unaware of.

But the increase in pressure DOES change how much heat it can absorb...in makes it absorb even more

Actually it’s less. As a gas is pressurized it releases heat.

As Venus heated up, the water evaporated, and the sun's UV rays broke the H2O down, to where the hydrogen escaped.

Assuming Venus had an ocean of water which is another topic for debate.

Here are some other links to read about it:

Great! Some linked info. To be clear I am not claiming that a greenhouse effect does not happen on Venus. I am dubious to the term “runaway greenhouse effect” since this is explained as the source for the high temps on Venus. There are a lot of other factors to consider when discussion the evolution of Venus in which our current understanding is very limited.

While I am skeptic of AGW (man made global warming) I do believe in climate change, however, the above site has an enormous amount of information,

I agree with you on the cause being anthropogenic and appreciate the linked information. I understand the time constraints as I am also very busy.

I would like to add that I appreciate the debate we have here as it encourages me to read up on this subject and learn something new. I was hoping that we could could tie this back into the OP topic and perhaps discuss the role volcanism might play in all of this.