Venus lava flows

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.

A radar image show lava flows
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.

Some features peculiar to Venus seen in this radar image. There is a line of seven 25 km diameter flat-topped ‘pancake domes’, which could be produced by eruption of a variety of viscous lava.