Crustal bending at Salme Dorsa on Venus

The westward arcuate Salme Dorsa ridge belt studied here is a compressional crustal zone. The ridge belt with adjoining structures is an evident indication of lateral stresses and adjoining crustal movements on Venus, and supports the idea of SE compression against the southern Ishtar Terra foreland planitia. It has been compressed and pushed from the southeast against and over the foreland planitia, which has bent under the load and/or lateral stress, resulting in trough and bulge formation in front of the ridge belt. This bending allows some estimates to be made of the thickness of the uppermost elastic lithosphere layer in this restricted area.