--- title: "A Poisonous Tsunami Is Screaming Across the Surface of Venus" description: "Learn more about the poisonous tsunami that's been traveling the surface of Venus every 4.9 days and what would happen if it was on Earth." date: "2020-08-06" modified: "2020-08-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/planet-scale-wave-venus" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "JAXA" - "the digest" - "Venus" --- # A Poisonous Tsunami Is Screaming Across the Surface of Venus ![Astronomers have discovered that a gigantic wall of clouds is traveling around the surface of Venus every 4.9 days and has been doing so for decades.]() *\Image: Javier Peralta/JAXA-Planet C team\* Astronomers have discovered that a gigantic wall of poisonous clouds is sweeping across the surface of Venus every few days — and has been doing so for decades, [*ScienceAlert* reports](). It's so massive, in fact, it reaches far beyond the planet's equator to both the north and south mid latitudes at altitudes of around 50 kilometers. "If this happened on Earth, this would be a frontal surface at the scale of the planet," said astrophysicist Pedro Machado at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, co-author of [a paper]() about the research published in the journal *Geophysical Research Letters* in May, in [a statement](). "And that’s incredible." The study, led by the Japanese space agency JAXA, suggests this wave has been traveling around Venus since at least 1983 at about 328 kilometers per hour. Venus is kept at a blistering 465 degrees Celsius near the region where these cloud patterns were observed thanks to an extreme greenhouse effect. Most of Venus's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide with sulfuric acid raining down from the skies. Yet many other aspects of Venus's atmosphere remain a mystery — and the observation of this massive wave could could help build a fuller understanding in the future. "We would have finally found a wave transporting momentum and energy from the deep atmosphere and dissipating before arriving at the top of the clouds," explained Javier Peralta, an astrophysicist at JAXA and lead author of the study, in the statement. "It would therefore be depositing momentum precisely at the level where we observe the fastest winds of the so-called atmospheric super-rotation of Venus, whose mechanisms have been a long-time mystery," he added. The exact mechanisms of this tidal wave are still not entirely understood. It's an entirely new meteorological phenomenon, according to the researchers, that has never been seen on any other planet. **READ MORE:** [An Epic, Planet-Scale Wave Has Been Hiding in The Toxic Clouds of Venus For Decades]() \[*ScienceAlert*\] **More on Venus:** *[NASA Venus Rover Designed For “Exploring Hell”]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()