NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Ebb and Flow

This image, taken with the Wide Angle Camera (WAC), shows a lava flow front in Mercury's Northern Volcanic Plains region. The flow front is quite long, indicating that large volumes of highly fluid lava erupted quickly and covered large areas to form the mercurian smooth plains.

Date acquired: July 25, 2012

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington