Lava Flows on Venus . ... Credit Copyright: Magellan Project , JPL , NASA Explanation: The hot surface of Venus shows clear signs of ancient lava flows . ... Picture above , lava apparently flowed down from the top of the image and pooled in the light colored areas visible across the image middle and bottom. The lava cut a channel across the darker ridge that runs horizontally across the image center. The picture covers about 500 kilometers across. ... NASA Official: Jay Norris. ...