Venus has lava tubes, and they're weird

 

Image courtesy of JSC/NASA

Joel Kontinen

Could massive underground tunnels exist on Venus?  Yes, according to recent studies.

It has been suggested that lava tubes - underground tunnels carved out by molten rock - might be on Venus, and now we have direct evidence that this is the case.

We now know for sure that massive underground tunnels, carved by lava, exist on Venus – and they are surprisingly wide and different from those on any other planet.

It is uncontroversial that lava tubes – underground tunnels carved out by molten rock – exist on Earth, the moon and Mars. Smaller planets with low gravity tend to form more cavernous tubes, in part because the rock walls are less likely to collapse with weaker gravity. On the moon, for instance, the tubes are so large that scientists have proposed using them as live-in shelters for astronauts, providing shielding from the harsh solar wind.

 Source:

Alex Wilkins 2025 Venus has lava tubes, and they're weird | New Scientist 22 September