{"dataset":{"slug":"surface-features","title":"Surface Features","description":"Named surface features across the planets, moons, and dwarf planets.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":32,"sources":["nasa","jpl"]},"entities":[{"id":"surface_feature:ahuna-mons","name":"Ahuna Mons","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A steep, isolated mountain on Ceres interpreted as a cryovolcano — a dome built by icy, briny material erupting from within the dwarf planet.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/ahuna-mons"},{"id":"surface_feature:alpha-regio","name":"Alpha Regio","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"One of the first-recognised tessera regions on Venus — a patch of the planet's oldest, most intensely deformed 'tile' terrain, ridged and grooved by ancient tectonics.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/alpha-regio"},{"id":"surface_feature:aphrodite-terra","name":"Aphrodite Terra","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A continent-sized highland region straddling Venus's equator, roughly the size of Africa, cut by deep rifts and dotted with volcanic features.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/aphrodite-terra"},{"id":"surface_feature:artemis-corona","name":"Artemis Corona","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The largest corona on Venus — a vast circular volcano-tectonic feature ringed by fractures, marking where hot material welled up beneath the crust.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/artemis-corona"},{"id":"surface_feature:caloris-basin","name":"Caloris Planitia","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"One of the largest impact basins in the Solar System, on Mercury, so violent that its antipode is marked by chaotic 'weird terrain' shaken up by the focused seismic waves.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/caloris-basin"},{"id":"surface_feature:cantaloupe-terrain","name":"Cantaloupe Terrain","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The strange, dimpled surface of Neptune's moon Triton, resembling the skin of a cantaloupe — a young, resurfaced landscape unlike anywhere else, imaged by Voyager 2.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/cantaloupe-terrain"},{"id":"surface_feature:conamara-chaos","name":"Conamara Chaos","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A region of Europa where the icy crust has broken into a jumble of tilted blocks 'rafts' set in refrozen slush — evidence that the surface interacts with the ocean below.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/conamara-chaos"},{"id":"surface_feature:copernicus-crater","name":"Copernicus","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A young, prominent lunar impact crater with terraced walls and bright rays of ejecta, a classic example of a complex crater.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/copernicus-crater"},{"id":"surface_feature:discovery-rupes","name":"Discovery Rupes","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A great lobate cliff on Mercury, formed as the planet's interior cooled and its crust contracted, thrusting one block of terrain over another.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/discovery-rupes"},{"id":"surface_feature:gale-crater","name":"Gale Crater","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A 154 km impact crater with a central mountain (Aeolis Mons / Mount Sharp) of layered sediments. The Curiosity rover has climbed it, reading a history of ancient lakes.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/gale-crater"},{"id":"surface_feature:great-red-spot","name":"Great Red Spot","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Persistent anticyclonic storm on Jupiter.","entryPath":"/solar-system/great-red-spot"},{"id":"surface_feature:hellas-basin","name":"Hellas Planitia","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"One of the largest visible impact basins in the Solar System and the lowest point on Mars, deep enough that the atmospheric pressure at its floor can allow liquid water briefly.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/hellas-basin"},{"id":"surface_feature:jezero-crater","name":"Jezero Crater","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A crater that once held a lake, with a well-preserved river delta at its rim. The Perseverance rover is caching samples here in the search for signs of ancient life.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/jezero-crater"},{"id":"surface_feature:kasei-valles","name":"Kasei Valles","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"One of the largest outflow channels on Mars, carved by catastrophic floods of water that burst from the Tharsis region billions of years ago.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/kasei-valles"},{"id":"surface_feature:kraken-mare","name":"Kraken Mare","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The largest known sea of liquid methane and ethane on Titan, near the north pole — the largest body of surface liquid in the Solar System beyond Earth.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/kraken-mare"},{"id":"surface_feature:mare-imbrium","name":"Mare Imbrium","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The vast lava-filled 'Sea of Showers', one of the largest lunar maria, occupying a giant ancient impact basin on the Moon's near side.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/mare-imbrium"},{"id":"surface_feature:mare-tranquillitatis","name":"Mare Tranquillitatis","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Lunar mare (Apollo 11 landing site) on The Moon.","entryPath":"/solar-system/mare-tranquillitatis"},{"id":"surface_feature:maxwell-montes","name":"Maxwell Montes","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The highest mountains on Venus, rising about 11 km above the mean surface in the northern highlands of Ishtar Terra — higher than Everest above sea level.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/maxwell-montes"},{"id":"surface_feature:occator-crater","name":"Occator Crater","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A crater on the dwarf planet Ceres famous for its bright deposits — salts left behind by briny water that reached the surface, hinting at a subsurface reservoir.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/occator-crater"},{"id":"surface_feature:olympia-undae","name":"Olympia Undae","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A vast field of dark, wind-blown dunes wrapping around the north polar ice cap of Mars — one of the largest dune fields on the planet.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/olympia-undae"},{"id":"surface_feature:olympus-mons","name":"Olympus Mons","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Shield volcano — tallest in the Solar System on Mars.","entryPath":"/solar-system/olympus-mons"},{"id":"surface_feature:ontario-lacus","name":"Ontario Lacus","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The largest lake in Titan's southern hemisphere, a shallow methane-ethane lake whose shoreline changes with the moon's seasons.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/ontario-lacus"},{"id":"surface_feature:rheasilvia","name":"Rheasilvia","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"An enormous impact basin covering much of the south pole of the asteroid Vesta, with a central peak among the tallest in the Solar System. Its excavation launched the HED meteorites.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/rheasilvia"},{"id":"surface_feature:south-pole-aitken-basin","name":"South Pole–Aitken Basin","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Giant lunar impact basin on The Moon.","entryPath":"/solar-system/south-pole-aitken-basin"},{"id":"surface_feature:sputnik-planitia","name":"Sputnik Planitia","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"The vast nitrogen-ice plain that forms the western lobe of Pluto's bright 'heart'. Its ice slowly churns in convection cells and flows like a glacier, keeping the surface young.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/sputnik-planitia"},{"id":"surface_feature:tenzing-montes","name":"Tenzing Montes","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Jagged mountains of water ice rising several kilometres along the edge of Sputnik Planitia on Pluto — water ice is rigid enough at Pluto's temperatures to hold up mountains.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/tenzing-montes"},{"id":"surface_feature:tharsis-montes","name":"Tharsis Montes","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A chain of three vast shield volcanoes on the Tharsis rise, a bulge so large it may have tilted the whole planet. Tharsis dominates the western hemisphere of Mars.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/tharsis-montes"},{"id":"surface_feature:tiger-stripes","name":"Tiger Stripes","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Four parallel fractures across the south pole of Enceladus from which giant plumes of water vapour and ice erupt into space — fed by the moon's subsurface ocean.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/tiger-stripes"},{"id":"surface_feature:tycho-crater","name":"Tycho","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Lunar impact crater on The Moon.","entryPath":"/solar-system/tycho-crater"},{"id":"surface_feature:uruk-sulcus","name":"Uruk Sulcus","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A swath of the bright, grooved terrain that covers much of Ganymede — younger ice, tectonically resurfaced into parallel ridges and troughs.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/uruk-sulcus"},{"id":"surface_feature:valhalla","name":"Valhalla","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"A giant multi-ring impact structure on Callisto — concentric rings of ridges rippling out from a bright central plain across the most heavily-cratered surface in the Solar System.","entryPath":"/planetary-geology/valhalla"},{"id":"surface_feature:valles-marineris","name":"Valles Marineris","type":"surface_feature","domain":"science","description":"Canyon system on Mars.","entryPath":"/solar-system/valles-marineris"}]}