Geological interpretation of a segment of Venus from radar images of the U.S.S.R. spacecrafts Venera -15 and -16

A first geological interpretation of a part of the Maxwell Mountains area is given using radar images of the Soviet spacecrafts Venera 15 and 16. The region is characterized by following features: plateaus, ridges and depressions, ring structures, volcanoes, and lineations of different types and, very probably, also of different age. The dominant surface modeling mechanism should be gliding processes connected to faults producing many complicated superpositions of features. To obtain more objective and reproducible, results a method was used for quantitative texture analysis to decipher some of the geological indications.