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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.
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.
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 United States Geological Survey defines sixty-two cartographic quadrangles for the surface of Venus, [54] with V-1 as the north pole region and V-62 as the south pole region. Base on the FMAPs, different groups of Venus researchers are mapping different quadrangles for the surface of Venus, resulting in different type of units defined.
Longitude Ishtar Terra: I-2490 57-90° N 0-360° E Guinevere Planitia: I-2457 ... Diagram of Venus' 1:5,000,000 map quadrangles. Name Number Latitude Longitude
Venus is the second planet from the Sun.It is a terrestrial planet and is the closest in mass and size to its orbital neighbour Earth.Venus has by far the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, composed mostly of carbon dioxide with a thick, global sulfuric acid cloud cover.
The Soviet Venera landings revealed that the surface of Venus is essentially basaltic in composition based on geochemical measurements and morphology of volcanic flows. [7] The surface of Venus is dominated by patterns of basaltic volcanism, and by compressional and extensional tectonic deformation, such as the highly deformed tesserae terrain ...
Tessera terrain in the Maxwell Montes seen in white on the right of the image. Eastern edge of Lakshmi Planum seen in gray on the left. A tessera (plural tesserae) is a region of heavily deformed terrain on Venus, characterized by two or more intersecting tectonic elements, high topography, and subsequent high radar backscatter. [1]