Description:
<jats:p>Analysis of imagery, topography and gravity for Kunhild and Ereshkigal, adjacent large volcanoes on Venus, indicates that they are extinct hot spots that were located over a broad mantle upwelling. The volcanoes probably formed contemporaneously, but volcanism persisted at Kunhild after Ereshkigal's extinction. A late event in each structure's formation was sagging of the central region to form a broad depression. Ereshkigal, the shorter of the two structures, has a broader and deeper central depression than Kunhild. We suggest that when a long‐lived plume goes away from beneath a large Venusian shield volcano, removal of dynamic support from the plume stem produces a central sagging analogous to the collapse phase associated with corona formation on Venus.</jats:p>