This false-color view of the volcano Sif Mons was made by superposing Magellan radar image data on altimetry data. The volcano is 2.0 kilometers (1.2 miles) high and 300 kilometers (180 miles) in diameter. Sif Mons is located on the broad 2300 kilometers x 2000 kilometers (1380 x 1200 miles) rise of Western Eistla Regio, a region that may have formed from the upwelling of hot material from the interior of the planet. The view of the mountain is from the northeast to the southwest and shows an area just below the summit of the peak. A series of bright and dark lava flows are present in the central part of the image. The brightest flows, which are relatively rough or blocky, are associated with the most recent volcanism on this part of the volcano and are superposed on darker, smoother, and older flows. The bright flows extend for a distance of 120 kilometers (72 miles) down the flank of the mountain. The long length of the flows indicates that the lavas were extremely fluid at the time that they were erupted onto the surface. The superimposition of the image and topography data facilitates in identifying regions where lava flows are controlled by local changes in topography, and thus allows scientists to understand better the volcanic processes that formed the volcano and make detailed comparisons to volcanoes on Earth.
