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Venus - Complex Lava Flows at Sif Mons

Oct. 23, 1996
This is a full resolution mosaic from NASA's Magellan spacecraft showing a series of complex lava flows which emerge from the northern flank of Sif Mons, a large volcano just to the south.

This is a full resolution mosaic centered at 25 degrees north latitude, 351 east longitude. The region is approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) across. It shows a series of complex lava flows which emerge from the northern flank of Sif Mons, a large volcano just to the south. Several of the flows occupy narrow troughs formed by long fractures. A sequence of events that can be inferred from this image is the formation of the dark background plains by eruptions of extremely fluid volcanic material, and the formation of the small shield volcanoes on the plains surface that can be seen in the upper left part of the image. Next, the region was domed upward probably by heat from the interior of Venus that ultimately caused magmas to break out from the surface near the summit regions forming the Sif volcanic structure and its associated flank eruptions which can be seen in this image.

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