Venus lava flows

Used with permission
A 160 km wide radar image showing lava flows emanating from the volcano Sif Mons. The lava flows appear bright, not because they would look bright to your eyes but because their surface reflects radar strongly, which tells us that they are rough. The older surface that the lava has flowed across is much smoother, and so appears dark.

Used with permission
A 140 km wide radar image showing lava flows fed from the volcano Sapas Mons. Note the bright fractures cutting the old surface that is now partly buried by lava, and also a 20 km diameter impact crater near the centre.

Used with permission

Continue your journey across the surface of Venus:

Terrain: An introduction
Volcanoes
Craters
Coronae
Fractures
Mountain belts

Please note these pages include a number of large images which may take a few seconds to load if you have a slow connection to the internet.

All images: NASA-JPL Photojournal