The volcanoes of Venus

More volcanoes than any other planet

Only spacecraft can see it

The volcanoes of Venus — A lava plain on Venus, with round, flat pancake domes under the orange sky.

The numbers

How many there are: 80,000Counted with radar, and there are more than that
What the surface is made of: Almost all basalt, the rock of lava
Pancake domes: 9.3mi(15 km)
When the surface was remade: 500,000,000years ago
Is it still active?: Yes: in 2023 a vent was seen changing shape

To get an idea

Pancake domes are about a hundred times bigger than the lava domes that form on Earth.

Almost the whole surface of the planet is cooled lava, not any other kind of rock.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

About five hundred million years ago, lava seems to have covered almost the whole planet.
We know the surface was remade because there are very few impact craters on it.
The Magellan probe mapped Venus with radar, because the clouds hide every photograph.
In 2023 an old radar image revealed a volcanic vent that was getting wider.
The very heavy air of Venus presses down on the lava and keeps it from flowing away fast.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

Which planet has the most volcanoes of all?

Question 2 of 5

How was it possible to see the surface of Venus?

Question 3 of 5

What shape are pancake domes?

Question 4 of 5

Why are the eruptions on Venus not very explosive?

Question 5 of 5

Are the volcanoes of Venus extinct?

Riddles

There are more of us here than on any other world, and yet nobody has ever really photographed us: above us there is a roof of clouds that never opens. What are we?

We are shaped like giant pancakes, round and flat, and on Earth we do not exist at all. We were squashed by air that weighs ninety times as much as yours. What are we?

For years you thought we had been dead for ages. Then you compared two old pictures and noticed that one of us had changed. What are we?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Try water instead of honey. It flows away at once: the difference between the two is the same as between two kinds of lava.

Activity 2

Cover an object with a cloth and try to guess its shape by touching it. Radar does the same thing with Venus, but with waves.

The words

plates: The big pieces the Earth's crust is split into, which slide slowly.

Sources: Wikidata (Q1470481), Wikipedia (Volcanism on Venus).