Maxwell Montes

Located on Ishtar Terra, the more northern of the planet's two major highlands, Maxwell Montes is 11 kilometres (36,000 ft) high.

[5] Broad ridges and valleys making up Maxwell Montes and Fortuna Tessera suggest that the topography resulted from compression.

[1] The extreme height of Maxwell Montes with other compressional mountain ranges around Lakshmi Planum suggests that its origin is more complex.

[6] By using radar to probe through the permanent and thick clouds in the Venusian atmosphere and make observations of the surface, scientists at the American Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico discovered the extensive highland on Venus that came to be called Maxwell Montes in 1967.

The name, originally given by Ray Jurgens in 1970 on the urging of Tommy Gold, was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) between 1976 and 1979.

Perspective rendering of Ishtar Terra , at the center of the image is Maxwell Montes, according to its elevation in red and its peaks like Skadi Mons in white.
Color-coded elevation map, showing the elevated terrae "continents" in yellow: Ishtar Terra with Maxwell Montes at the top.