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Topographic Domains (Venus)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Topographically defined regions on Venus below the mean planetary radius (MPR).

Description

The hypsometry of Venus is unimodal, in contrast to the bimodal hypsometry of Earth. In addition, most of the surface lies in close proximity to the mean planetary radius (MPR, 6,051.8 km). In addition, much of the surface lies near the MPR. The surface of Venus is divided into three topographic domains: lowlands, which generally lie below the MPR; highlands, which are greater than 2 km above the MPR; and mesolands, the region in between (0–2 km above the MPR) [which correspond approximately to the “rolling plains province” of Masursky et al. (1980)]. The highlands comprise <20 % of the surface, and the lowlands and mesolands represent, roughly, equal parts of the remainder (Phillips and Hansen 1994; Fig. 1). These three topographic provinces are similar to those defined based on global altimetry data collected during the Pioneer Venus and Magellan missions (Pettengill et al. 1980;...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN, USA

    Vicki L. Hansen

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  1. Vicki L. Hansen
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Correspondence to Vicki L. Hansen .

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Hansen, V.L. (2014). Topographic Domains (Venus). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_592-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_592-1

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