Aino Planitia is a lowland region in the southern hemisphere of Venus and is southwest of Thetis Regio in western Aphrodite Terra. It is dominated by low-lying plains units that are characterized by northeast-trending wrinkle ridges and numerous small volcanic edifices, including shields, domes, and cones. The quadrangle contains a major volcano, Kunapipi Mons, and portions of Juno Chasma. A northern extension of the Lada Terra highland is in the southwestern portion of the map. Eight coronae are mapped in the quadrangle, the largest of which is the 500-km-diameter Copia Corona.

This book presents 41 selected articles written by leading researchers from the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The articles are grouped by the following topics: (1) Geochemistry, (2) Meteoritics, Cosmochemistry, Lunar and Planetary Sciences, (3) Biogeochemistry and Ecology, and (4) Analytical Chemistry, Radiochemistry, and Radioecology. The articles present recent experimental data, theoretical investigations, critical reviews, the results of computer modeling in the above-mentioned fields. Intended to provide a scientific “snapshot” of the institute, the book also includes content on its history, main scientific achievements and current goals, together with detailed descriptions of its 25 laboratories and three museums so as to promote new international collaborations. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to all scientists and graduate students working in the areas of geochemistry, analytical chemistry and radiochemistry, earth and environmental sciences, biogeosciences, meteoritics and planetary science, and to those seeking new collaboration opportunities in these areas in Russia.

Volcanism and tectonism are the dominant endogenic means by which planetary surfaces change. This book aims to encompass the broad range in character of volcanism, tectonism, faulting and associated interactions observed on planetary bodies across the inner solar system - a region that includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars and asteroids. The diversity and breadth of landforms produced by volcanic and tectonic processes is enormous, and varies across the inner solar system bodies. As a result, the selection of prevailing landforms and their underlying formational processes that are described and highlighted in this volume are but a primer to the expansive field of planetary volcanism and tectonism. This Special Publication features 22 research articles about volcanic and tectonic processes manifest across the inner solar system.