European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday september 3, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 9 Venus is still alive photos show spacecraft detects great geological changes by Lee Dye / the los Angeles times Pasadena Calif. A scientists have finally found what they have been looking for in the thousands of images sent Back by the Magellan spacecraft Over the past year a convincing evidence that Venus like Earth is still geologically alive. The images show that sometime in the last few months Venus had a massive landslide that was probably triggered by a a Venus  until the discovery made last week at the Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena no one could say for sure if Venus has dynamic ongoing processes like those that have built mountains and filled valleys with debris on Earth. Magellan which is managed by jul for the National aeronautics and space administration has been sending Back Sharp radar images of the surface of Venus for More than a year. But those have been Static images revealing the ground As it appeared at the moment the spacecraft passed overhead. Earlier this year Magellan began a second phase of mapping passing Over the same territory it had covered before and taking new images to see if anything had changed. On thursday night Jeffrey j. Plaut a planetary scientist who finished working on his doctorate just in time to join the Magellan project was comparing images taken eight months apart or Venus aphrodite Terra a High equatorial plateau. As he studied the two images Plaut suddenly realized that one a taken last month a was quite different from one taken the preceding november. A where there once was a plateau there now is a pile of rubble a he said during a hastily called news conference Friday at jul. Not quite certain what he was seeing Plaut sensed that the slope of the plateau had been altered by a massive landslide that sent millions of tons of Rock crashing Down into the Valley below. A i tried to remain Calm a he said. But Plaut soon found himself a running around screaming in the  it was 6 30 p.m., and everybody else had gone Home. He continued studying the images still not quite sure what they showed. Median is designed to give a stereoscopic View of the surface of Venus by capturing images from different angles and even different directions As it passes Over the two volcanic domes on Venus Are clearly revealed in this mosaic image sent Back by the Magellan spacecraft. Ground. Plautus two images taken eight months apart were captured As the camera looked from the left. Not until Friday morning when another image of the same area spilled out of the computer did he begin to rest easy. The third image was taken from the right and it confirmed what he saw in the first two Plaut said. The landslide he concluded was real. Friday morning Magellan project scientist Stephen Saunders looked at the images Ana agreed that Plaut was right. It was the moment Saunders had been waiting for. A i had been praying we would eventually find something like that a he said. It had been a frustrating search because most of the planet has not changed Between the two Magellan passes. But All that changed thursday night with the discovery of the landslide. A Venus is still alive a Saunders said. The huge landslide was probably Trig gered by a a Venus said and that could Only processes inside the planet Are still re quake a Saunders la occur if dynamic a la shaping the surface. He said the landslide probably released As much Energy As a magnitude 5 earthquake and it was probably a sudden colossal event. More landslides Are expected to be discovered As scientists continue to compare images but the grand trophy is still out there. Somewhere in one of the thousands of images Magellan is sending Back Saunders Hopes to find just one Little Volcano that looks somehow different in the second image from the Way it looked in the first. That would prove that Venus has Active volcanoes. Soviets welcomed with alaskan style festivities Anchorage Alaska apr they re grabbing up Blue jeans instead of furs building friendships rather than an Empire. Hundreds of soviets arrived in Alaska by Way of three wooden ships this summer to commemorate the 250th anniversary of explorer Vitus Bering a Landing on the alaskan coast. He crossed the 55-mile-wide body of water a now known As the Bering Strait a that separates Siberia and Alaska and connects the Arctic Ocean and Bering sea. A people Here Are so Friendly so warm a said Boris Berestov of Perm part of the group of visitors. A it is very moving for me a for us a to be  port towns around the state have hosted dances and festivals. Dozens of soviet visitors have been baptized in alaskans russian orthodox churches. One soviet Sailor even got married climaxing a we Klong courtship in Sitka. At pot latches a named for traditional Eskimo festivals where gifts Are exchanged a alaskans have offered their guests everything from free ship repairs and navigational equipment to Mcdonald a lunches and boxes of groceries. A a they re much worse off than they let on and i have a compassion for them for the struggles they re dealing with now a said Kathy Webber of the Kodiak area native associations culture and heritage program. Two ships that sailed to Seattle got Back Home after local people raised thousands of dollars. Their company had run out of Money. Unlike the controversy surrounding next years 500th anniversary of Columbus voyage to America scant attention has been paid Here to the dark Side of the 18th-and 19th-Century russian expansion. Russian fur traders nearly wiped out aleut culture and the people themselves through killings slavery and deportation. They damaged the environment by Hunting sea otters nearly to extinction. But the sins of russians two centuries ago  be held against today a soviet visitors several native Community leaders said. A i had very mixed feelings about it at first a Webber said. A but to see the Way they respond and How excited they Are about All we have to offer a for me personally it dropped All barriers there. They re human  a the door is open now a said Lois Hansen Payton of the Kodiak visitors Bureau. A i feel that i could go to Vladivostok and there a several people Over there that i would feel very comfortable saying Are my  Kodiak residents have invited soviets into their Homes done their laundry and taken them for motorcycle rides. Some grocery stores brought boxes of food to soviet ships. The aleut russian Village of Ouzinkie on Kodiak Island threw an Impromptu Potlatch for one of the wooden ships which wound up there after getting lost. The soviets got a tour of the villages orthodox Church spoke russian with an 84-year-old Ouzinkie woman gave people their pocket change As gifts and exchanged addresses with local residents. A it was really great a its very Seldom we get to have anybody Over Here a said Herman Squartsoff vice president of the Ouzinkie tribal Council. Most of the soviet visitors to alaskans ports this summer have been sailors historians artists and journalists. Among them was Alexander Maslov Bering a 44-year-old Engineer who is Bering a great great great great grandson. In Sitka once the capital of russian America 38 soviets and americans took a a walk run through Sitka  in Cordova planners arranged kayak rides a native dinner and a concert by a soviet Rock band at the High school. In Nome 20 members of a soviet a Walrus club entertained locals by jumping into the frigid water and swimming from boats to the Beach. And often the soviets left with More than memories. A after the russians come to town we usually can to get a pair of Blue jeans for a while a Webber said