Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
RAS April Public Talk - Dr Iris van Zelst
Venus: cloudy with a chance of earthquakes
Venus is Earth’s sister planet due to their similarity in size and mass. Apart from that, however, the two planets are wildly different, with surface temperatures on Venus that easily melt lead and a surface pressure like the bottom of Earth’s ocean. Additionally, Venus is completely covered in clouds; obscuring its surface and shrouding the entire planet in mystery.
What is its interior structure? Is there some form of plate tectonics? Is Venus currently volcanically active? Are there earthquakes - or indeed: venusquakes?
In the coming decades we can start answering these questions with data from the multiple missions that will fly to Venus. In this talk, Iris will convince you that Venus is one of the most interesting planets in our Solar System and she will present many ways in which we explore this fascinating planet.
About our speaker:
Dr. Iris van Zelst is a postdoctoral research fellow at the German Aerospace Center and the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. She studies the geophysics of Earth and Venus and is particularly fascinated by the geodynamics and seismology of those planets. Previously, Iris worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Leeds. She obtained her PhD from ETH Zürich in Switzerland in 2020 on her research on tsunamigenic earthquakes after a BSc and MSc in Earth Sciences and Geophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Besides research, Iris is also currently developing the educational game QUARTETnary about the geological time scale.
Link for the educational game QUARTETnary: quartetnary.com
Our speaker also has a YouTube page where you can find videos on what it is like to be a postdoc and just released season 2 of Science Sisters: youtube.com/@UCAt07nmDuyGqT6bd0fpJG7Q
RAS April Public Talk - Dr Iris van Zelst
Venus: cloudy with a chance of earthquakes
Venus is Earth’s sister planet due to their similarity in size and mass. Apart from that, however, the two planets are wildly different, with surface temperatures on Venus that easily melt lead and a surface pressure like the bottom of Earth’s ocean. Additionally, Venus is completely covered in clouds; obscuring its surface and shrouding the entire planet in mystery.
What is its interior structure? Is there some form of plate tectonics? Is Venus currently volcanically active? Are there earthquakes - or indeed: venusquakes?
In the coming decades we can start answering these questions with data from the multiple missions that will fly to Venus. In this talk, Iris will convince you that Venus is one of the most interesting planets in our Solar System and she will present many ways in which we explore this fascinating planet.
About our speaker:
Dr. Iris van Zelst is a postdoctoral research fellow at the German Aerospace Center and the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. She studies the geophysics of Earth and Venus and is particularly fascinated by the geodynamics and seismology of those planets. Previously, Iris worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Leeds. She obtained her PhD from ETH Zürich in Switzerland in 2020 on her research on tsunamigenic earthquakes after a BSc and MSc in Earth Sciences and Geophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Besides research, Iris is also currently developing the educational game QUARTETnary about the geological time scale.
Link for the educational game QUARTETnary: quartetnary.com
Our speaker also has a YouTube page where you can find videos on what it is like to be a postdoc and just released season 2 of Science Sisters: youtube.com/@UCAt07nmDuyGqT6bd0fpJG7Q
