Venus Geologic Map Index

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay

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Hemispheric Maps

These maps are azimuthal equal area, which provide a somewhat realistic foreshortening toward the edge of the hemisphere, but not the extreme foreshortening of a true orthogonal projection.

00nS, 000 and 180 EW
00nS, 090E and 090W
North and South Poles

Regional Maps

These maps look superficially like perspective views of Venus but are actually azimuthal equal area projection, which in principle can show the entire planet. However, distortion becomes very severe close to the antipode, so these maps use a cutoff of 150 degrees. Therefore, they show considerably more than half the planet - roughly 5/6.

00nS 000EW Sedna-Guinevere-Lavinia Planitia
00nS 090E Aphrodite Terra
00nS 180EW Atla Regio
00nS 090W Phoebe and Beta Regio
90n 000EW North Pole and Ishtar Terra
90s 000EW South Pole

Small-Scale Maps

Geologic mapping of Venus is a long way from completion. Many things complicate the process:

• Venus is entirely cloud covered and can only be mapped by radar. Radar can reveal surface roughness and conductive properties of the surface.
• Venus has a low and uniform density of cratering over the entire planet, unlike most other planetary bodies that have large regional variations. The surface of Venus appears to be geologically young and the same age everywhere, a few hundred million years. Apparently Venus was resurfaced. One widely accepted theory is that Venus is too rigid to allow plate tectonics because of its extreme dehydration, so that internal heat builds up until it is released by planetwide volcanism.
• Lithologically, Venus probably is mostly basalt. Only geomorphic units can be recognized thus far.

90n 000EW North Pole

60n 000EW Ishtar Terra
60n 090E Leda Planitia
60n 180EW Vinmara Planitia
60n 090W Metis Regio

40n 000EW Sedna Planitia and Southern Ishtar Terra
40n 090E Leda and Niobe Planitia
40n 180EW Atalanta Planitia
40n 090W Beta Regio

00nS 000EW Guinivere Planitia
00nS 090E Northern Aphrodite Terra
00nS 180EW Thetis and Atla Regio
00nS 090W Beta and Phoebe Regio

40s 000EW Alpha and Dione Regio
40s 090E Artemis Chasma
40s 180EW Imdr Regio and SE of Aphrodite Terra
40s 090W Helen Planitia and Themis Regio

60s 000EW Lada Terra
60s 090E Aino Planitia
60s 180EW Dsonkwa Regio
60s 090W Neringa Regio

90s 000EW South Pole

Notes and References

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Global Geology Index
Professor Dutch's Home Page

Created 11 April 2014, Last Update 24 May 2020