OBSERVATIONS AND MAPPING OF SEDIMENTARY FEATURES NEAR SELECT TESSERAE ON VENUS

Abstract

From spring 2024 to spring 2025, I worked with Professor Lynn Carter at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on a project to determine how tesserae on Venus interact with the planet’s sedimentary cycle and associated processes. We produced a map sedimentary features that will be posted on the University of Arizona ReDATA repository in the coming weeks (University of Arizona, 2025). We also produced an abstract and poster presentation for the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). We also adapted a dune crestline mapping algorithm from Telfer et al. (2015) to apply to dune fields on Earth to attempt to use the dune fields as analogs for microdunes on Venus. We found that sedimentary features near tesserae were somewhat rare. Nonetheless, we mapped the location of wind streaks, possible mass wasting, low emissivity terrain, and newly classified “outlines” in the immediate vicinity of several tesserae. We also discovered two microdune fields in Tellus tessera and Husbishag tessera. While we ran out of time to use our crestline mapping algorithm to study analogs of Venus microdunes, we were able to qualitatively determine that dune morphology does affect their appearance in SAR imagery depending on the direction they are imaged from.