Volcanically embayed craters on Venus: testing the catastrophic and equilibrium resurfacing models

•Regional and lobate plains on Venus represent different epochs of volcanism.•Older regional plains: high-rate volcanism in large regions.•Regional plains: small (3%) proportion of partly embayed craters.•Younger lobate plains: prolonged volcanism from localized sources.•Lobate plains: large (50%) proportion of partly embayed craters.•Volcanic resurfacing: changed from catastrophic to equilibrium mode.

Two major types of volcanic units, older regional plains and younger lobate plains, make up ~50% of the surface of Venus and represent different epochs of volcanism. The abundance of impact craters partially embayed from the exterior by each of these two types of units permits the testing of the key points of the model of equilibrium resurfacing. The proportion of craters embayed by the older regional plains is ~3%, which requires the typical size of a volcanic resurfacing event to be ~2700 km (~25° of angular diameter) in the framework of the equilibrium model. These event dimensions are inconsistent with the quasi-random spatial distribution of the craters. The proportion of craters embayed by younger lobate plains is 33%, which can be achieved if the characteristic size of the resurfacing event is less than ~160 km (~1.5° of angular diameter). Events of this size do not disturb the character of the spatial distribution of craters. We conclude that the style of volcanic resurfacing on Venus has changed significantly during its observable portion of the geologic history. During the global volcanic regime when regional plains were emplaced, volcanism acted in large regions and the process of formation of regional plains was more intensive than accumulation of impact craters. This led to the very small proportion of embayed craters (~3%). Later, during the network-rifting and volcanism regime (emplacement of lobate plains), volcanic sources were localized at distinctive centers, the net volcanic intensity decreased and became comparable to the rate of accumulation of craters, which resulted in much larger percentage (33%) of craters embayed by lobate plains.