Planetary
Science
Institute

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of Venus taken by NASA's Magellan spacecraft (science mission complete in 1994) continue to be the primary dataset for studying that planet's surface. The images here, part of Les Bleamaster's Planetary Geology and Geophysics mapping project, display some of the diversity in volcanic landforms observed. On the left (image center - 8 S, 200 E), several (>25) "small" (Hawaii for scale) volcanic constructs and associated lava flows pepper the surface. In contrast, the image on the right (center - 6 S, 205 E) shows a significant portion of a 1000 km channel-fed lava flow. Factors that contribute to different types of volcanic landforms produced include lava composition and temperature, magma production, and the rate of emplacement. New data from ESA's Venus Express spacecraft (operational orbit achieved in May 2006) may help to better characterize Venus' surface features as well as reveal surface temperature variations resulting from active volcanism.