Ovda Regio

Ovda Regio is a Venusian crustal plateau located near the equator in the western highland region of Aphrodite Terra that stretches from 10°N to 15°S and 50°E to 110°E. Known as the largest crustal plateau in Venus, the regio covers an area of approximately 15,000,000 square kilometres (5,800,000 sq mi) and is bounded by regional plains to the north, Salus Tessera to the west, Thetis Regio to the east, and Kuanja as well as Ix Chel chasmata to the south. The crustal plateau serves as a place to hold the localized tessera terrains in the planet, which makes up roughly 8% of Venus' surface area. The kinematic evolution of crustal plateaus on Venus has been a debated topic in the planetary science community. Understanding its complex evolution is expected to contribute to a better knowledge of the geodynamic history of Venus. It is named after the Marijian giantess who has supernatural powers.

Extensive research has been conducted to describe the structural geology of Ovda Regio. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the NASA Magellan mission have been analyzed to recognize the distribution of its structural features. The distribution was then mapped to find its temporal and spatial relation to find insight into the Regio's deformation and formation mechanisms. The challenge in this process is to find the ideal temporal and spatial relationships, which hold a prominent role in comprehending the tectonic processes. In terms of structural setting, the Regio is characterized mainly by ribbons, folds, and a complex of graben.

Folds and a distinct compositional layering generally characterize the western part of Ovda Regio. Compositional layering means that the structural layers differ from each other in terms of their chemical compositions. In particular, the layers are differentiated based on their tone and textural recognition from SAR images. The folds observed in this part of the Regio are concentric, associated with plunges, and share a common axis that is trending in a east-west fashion. Another feature that is observed in this part is ribbons structures. Ribbons can be described as structures that are steep with long depression of about 1–3 km in width and shallow depths of less than 500 m. In contrast to the folding structures, the ribbons in the western part are randomly distributed.

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