Abstract The fractal dimensions of lava flow margins on Earth often correlate with their flow morphologies and have been used to tentatively identify flow morphology on other rocky planets where fine‐scale observations are limited. Previous studies of lava flow margins on Venus have reported fractal dimensions ( D ) mostly within the range between 1.05 and 1.26, which, analogous to subaerial basalt flows on Earth, suggest the presence of both ‘a’ā and pahoehoe‐like morphologies. In this work, seven Venusian lava flow margins at Maat Mons (MM) and Ozza Mons (OM) were investigated, as these are volcanoes within Atla Regio that have been identified as areas with possibly recent volcanic activity. Three lava flow margins at MM are found to have D values of 1.13–1.20, consistent with values associated with pāhoehoe and transitional flows on Earth; a fourth flow with a D of only 1.05 has been determined to be topographically confined to a valley. Three flows analyzed on OM display low D values, 1.03–1.04, similar to that of the fourth MM flow. The differences in flow‐margin fractal dimensions in Atla Regio are correlated with relative age and geologic setting, with OM being older than MM and emplaced concurrently during rifting within a potentially more heavily faulted terrain. All data for D values on Venus do not reveal strong regional patterns, suggesting that, as on Earth, flow morphologies vary primarily on local scales in response to changes in eruptive and emplacement conditions.
Recchuiti et al. (2026) studied this question.