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The surface of Venus is dominated by geologic features that include volcanoes, large impact craters, and aeolian erosion and sedimentation landforms. Venus has a topography reflecting its single, strong crustal plate, with a unimodal elevation distribution (over 90% of the surface lies within an elevation of -1.0 and 2.5 km) [1] that preserves geologic structures for long periods of time.
The surface of Venus is comparatively flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), about the same as the vertical distance between the Earth's ocean floor and the higher summits of the Himalayas.
Studies have proven that Venus needed liquid water three billion years ago to be able to have such high concentrations of water-related minerals and gases on its surface and in its atmosphere today. However, such studies proved that the liquids would only have lasted up until 700 million to 750 million years ago, before eventually evaporating ...
Venus currently has a surface temperature of 450℃ (the temperature of an oven’s self-cleaning cycle) and an atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide (96%) with a density 90 times that of Earth’s.
It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" due to their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). The surface of Venus is covered by a dense atmosphere and presents clear evidence of former violent volcanic activity.
Venus may have had liquid surface water early in its history with a habitable environment, [24] [25] before a runaway greenhouse effect evaporated any water and turned Venus into its present state. [26] [27] [28] The rotation of Venus has been slowed and turned against its orbital direction by the currents and drag of its atmosphere. [29]
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Since the Magellan mission, more than 1,660 volcanic landforms have been identified on the surface of Venus. [32] Further analysis of the Magellan data revealed more than 85,000 volcanoes. [35] [36] After the surface of Venus was mapped, the California Institute of Technology created an algorithm for automatically identifying volcanoes from the ...