The Magellan mission (1990-1994) completed a radar mapping investigation of Venus. This mission revealed that the surface of Venus is mostly covered by volcanic materials, including vast lava plains, fields of small lava domes, and many large shield volcanoes. Patches of high-standing, radar-bright, tectonically deformed surface material known as tesserae appear to be significantly older than the young volcanic plains. Although there is no evidence of plate tectonics, Venus has been tectonically deformed by systems of rift zones, radial graben, a global pattern of east-west trending wrinkle ridges, and assorted other cross-cutting structures.

 

In 2021, two new Venus missions were selected by NASA’s Discovery program: VERITAS and DAVINCI. In addition, other countries are developing missions: EnVision (Europe), VOICE (China), Shukrayaan-1 (India), Venera-17 (Russia), et al. This session will explore what we know about the geology of Venus, and what these new upcoming missions will add to our knowledge.

• EP - Earth and Planetary Surface Processes
• T - Tectonophysics
• V - Volcanology, Geochemistry and Petrology