The tile-like, highly deformed terrain on Venus is called tessera.
The term comes from the Latin tessera, meaning a tile or small square. Tesserae are among Venus’s most tectonically deformed landscapes, marked by intersecting ridges, fractures, folds, and troughs. Their complex patterns can resemble parquet flooring in radar images.
Tessera terrain is generally elevated and produces strong radar backscatter. It is often regarded as some of the oldest exposed material on Venus, although scientists still debate exactly how it formed. Proposed explanations include crustal thickening, mantle downwelling, regional uplift, and the rise and collapse of ancient crustal plateaus.
A common mix-up is confusing tessera with regolith. Regolith is loose surface material, while tessera describes a geological terrain type. The word is also pluralized as tesserae; individual named regions include Fortuna Tessera and Alpha Regio.