Venus has been thought to possess a globally continuous lithosphere, in contrast to the mosaic of mobile tectonic plates that characterizes Earth. However, the Venus surface has been extensively deformed, and convection of the underlying mantle, possibly acting in concert with a low-strength lower crust, has been suggested as a source of some surface horizontal strains. The extent of surface mobility on Venus driven by mantle convection, however, and the style and scale of its tectonic expression have been unclear. We report a globally distributed set of crustal blocks in the Venus lowlands that show evidence for having rotated and/or moved laterally relative to one another, akin to jostling pack ice. At least some of this deformation on Venus postdates the emplacement of the locally youngest plains materials. Lithospheric stresses calculated from interior viscous flow models consistent with long-wavelength gravity and topography are sufficient to drive brittle failure in the upper Venus crust in all areas where these blocks are present, confirming that interior convective motion can provide a mechanism for driving deformation at the surface. The limited but widespread lithospheric mobility of Venus, in marked contrast to the tectonic styles indicative of a static lithosphere on Mercury, the Moon, and Mars, may offer parallels to interior–surface coupling on the early Earth, when global heat flux was substantially higher, and the lithosphere generally thinner, than today.

金星被认为拥有一个全球连续的岩石圈，与地球特征的移动构造板块的马赛克形成鲜明对比。然而，金星表面已经发生了广泛的变形，并且可能与低强度下地壳协同作用的下伏地幔对流被认为是某些表面水平应变的来源。然而，由地幔对流驱动的金星表面流动的程度，以及其构造表达的风格和规模尚不清楚。我们报告了金星低地的一组全球分布的地壳块，这些地壳块显示出相对于彼此旋转和/或横向移动的证据，类似于推挤浮冰。金星上的这种变形至少有一部分是在当地最年轻的平原材料的就位之后发生的。根据与长波长重力和地形一致的内部粘性流模型计算的岩石圈应力足以在存在这些块的所有区域驱动金星上地壳的脆性破坏，证实内部对流运动可以提供驱动变形的机制表面。金星有限但广泛的岩石圈流动性与表明水星、月球和火星上静态岩石圈的构造样式形成鲜明对比，可能与早期地球的内表面耦合相似，当时全球热通量显着更高，而且岩石圈通常比今天更薄。