{"dataset":{"slug":"geological-feature-types","title":"Geological Feature Types","description":"The classes of geological feature — craters, volcanoes, canyons, dunes, chaos terrain, and more.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":18,"sources":["nasa"]},"entities":[{"id":"geological_feature_type:canyon","name":"Canyon","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A deep, steep-sided valley cut by tectonics or water. Mars's Valles Marineris is a canyon system so large it would stretch across the entire United States.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/canyon"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:chaos-terrain","name":"Chaos Terrain","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A jumble of broken, tilted blocks of crust, often where a surface has been disrupted from below — as on Europa, where it may mark places the ice shell interacts with the ocean beneath.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/chaos-terrain"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:corona","name":"Corona","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A large circular volcanic-tectonic feature, ringed by fractures, thought to form where hot material rises and pushes up the crust — a signature landform of Venus.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/corona"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:cryovolcano","name":"Cryovolcano","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"An 'ice volcano' that erupts water, ammonia, or methane instead of molten rock, resurfacing the frozen worlds of the outer Solar System — from Ceres's Ahuna Mons to the plumes of Enceladus.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/cryovolcano"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:dune-field","name":"Dune Field","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A field of wind-blown dunes, showing that a world has an atmosphere and mobile sediment — from the basaltic-sand dunes of Mars to the hydrocarbon-sand dunes of Titan.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/dune-field"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:fault-scarp","name":"Fault Scarp","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A cliff formed where the crust has broken and one side has risen relative to the other. Mercury is covered in long lobate scarps produced as the planet cooled and shrank.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/fault-scarp"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:grooved-terrain","name":"Grooved Terrain (Sulci)","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"Bright bands of parallel ridges and grooves that cut across the dark, ancient surface of Ganymede — young, tectonically-resurfaced ice.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/grooved-terrain"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:highlands","name":"Highlands","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"The ancient, heavily-cratered high terrain of a world, older and more rugged than the smooth plains — like the bright lunar highlands or the tessera terrain of Venus.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/highlands"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:hydrocarbon-lake","name":"Hydrocarbon Lake","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A lake or sea of liquid methane and ethane — found only on Titan, the one other world in the Solar System with stable liquid on its surface.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/hydrocarbon-lake"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:ice-plain","name":"Ice Plain & Glacier","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A broad plain or flowing sheet of ice. On Pluto, the nitrogen-ice glaciers of Sputnik Planitia churn and flow; on Mars and the icy moons, water ice shapes the surface.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/ice-plain"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:impact-basin","name":"Impact Basin","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"An enormous impact structure, hundreds to thousands of kilometres across, formed by a giant early impact — often multi-ringed and later flooded by lava, as with the lunar maria.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/impact-basin"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:impact-crater","name":"Impact Crater","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A bowl-shaped depression blasted out when an asteroid or comet strikes a solid surface. Craters are the most common landform in the Solar System, and their density is used to date surfaces — the more craters, the older the terrain.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/impact-crater"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:lava-plain","name":"Lava Plain (Mare)","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A broad, dark plain of solidified lava. The lunar maria — the 'seas' — are vast basalt flows that filled ancient impact basins; similar plains cover much of Venus and Mars.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/lava-plain"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:mountain-range","name":"Mountain Range (Montes)","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A chain or massif of mountains, whether uplifted by tectonics, thrown up around an impact basin, or built by volcanism — from Venus's Maxwell Montes to the water-ice mountains of Pluto.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/mountain-range"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:outflow-channel","name":"Outflow Channel","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A giant channel carved by catastrophic floods of water in the distant past, evidence that liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/outflow-channel"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:river-delta","name":"River Delta","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A fan of sediment deposited where an ancient river entered a standing body of water — a prime target in the search for past life, as at Jezero crater on Mars.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/river-delta"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:shield-volcano","name":"Shield Volcano","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"A broad, gently-sloping volcano built by fluid lava flows. On Mars, low gravity and a stationary crust let shield volcanoes grow to enormous size — Olympus Mons is the tallest in the Solar System.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/shield-volcano"},{"id":"geological_feature_type:tessera","name":"Tessera","type":"geological_feature_type","domain":"science","description":"Complex, intensely deformed 'tile' terrain unique to Venus — the planet's oldest and most tectonically tortured surface, ridged and grooved in intersecting directions.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/tessera"}]}