An index of Martian place names, with links to photos and short articles about Mars after terraforming.

GEOGRAPHIC TERMS

• Chaos = land so jumbled it's indescribable. Mars has a lot of it.
• Chasma = chasm, a canyon carved by catastrophic floods
• Dorsa, dorsae = ridge, ridges
• Fossa, fossae = cracks, straight canyons caused by bulging or shrinkage.
• Mensa, mensae = mesas and cliffy islands
• Mons = mountain
• Planum = plain, plateau
• Planitia = low plain or basin, mostly seas now.
• Patera = wide volcano with a large caldera (crater)
• Regio = region (often dropped from names)
• Sulcus, sulci: folds, wrinkles
• Terra = land (often dropped from names)
• Tholus = conical volcano, steeper than a patera
• Vallis, valles = valley, valleys

1. ACIDALIA, a northern plain, now a lobe of the North Sea
2. AEOLIA, terraforming's triumph: equatorial coast with rainforest taller than redwoods
3. ALBA PATERA, a low, broad, northern volcano
4. AMAZONIS, heart of the Martian rainforest
5. AMAZONIS SEA, warm shallow arm of the North Sea
6. AMPHITRITE PATERA, a volcano on the south shore of Hellas
7. ANTONIADI, a crater-oasis on the Araby-Syrtis border
8. AONIA, Red Mars preserved: southern high desert with life only in craters
9. APOLLINARIS PATERA, a large equatorial volcano, south of Elysium
10. ARABY, the great northern desert once called Arabia Terra
11. ARCADIA, just north of Olympus; Oregon on Mars
12. ARCTICA, the new polar continent; much like Greenland
13. ARES VALLEY, a long desert river east of lower Mariner Canyon
14. ARGYRE SEA, a mammoth impact basin; ringed with high mountains
15. AROMATUM CHAOS, an equatorial water-maze in the lower Mariner Canyon complex
16. ARSIA MONS, a volcano of Tharsis, rivaling Oympus in height, but narrower and steeper
17. ARSINOES CHAOS, an equatorial water-maze in the lower Mariner Canyon complex
18. ASCRAEUS MONS, volcano in Tharsis rivaling Oympus in height. Wide caldera with huge cliffwalled gap
19. CANDOR CHASMA, in the north-center of the Mariner complex; now flooded and full of islands
20. CAPRI CHASMA, a wide, chaotic eastern part of the Mariner canyon complex; now a sound full of islands
21. CASSINI, a great crater in Araby, now an oasis
22. CERAUNIUS THOLUS, large volcano in north Tharsis south of Lake Uranius
23. CERBERUS FOSSAE, a range of canyons and hills in southeast Elysium
24. the CHAOTIC TERRAINS, the fractal landscape of the lower Mariner Canyon complex
25. CHARITIUM MONTES, the radial mountains south and east of the Argyre Sea. Cold and snowy
26. CHASMA BOREALE, an ice-covered sound cutting into Arctica almost to the pole.
27. CHRYSE GULF, a shallow sea about the size of the Mediterranean, north of the Mariner canyons
28. CIMMERIA, Red Mars preserved: a largely featureless red plain. Lava flow?
29. CLARITAS FOSSAE, an overlooked Andes curving south of Mariner Canyon
30. COPERNICUS, a forested crater in the Southern Highlands between Aonia and Cimmeria
31. COPRATES CHASMA, the deepest stretch of Mariner Canyon, east of Melas
32. CYDONIA, the coast of desert isles
33. the DAEDALUS PLATEAU, cursed by altitude
34. DAO VALLEY, a fjord and river valley, northeast Hellas
35. the DELTA, lenticular heaven
36. DEUTERONILUS MENSAE, a Siberian coast north of Araby. Locals call it just Deutero
37. ECHUS CHASMA, a two-mile-high cliff, now a flyers' mecca
38. ELYSIUM, the one true continent
39. EOS CHASMA, southeastern stretch of Mariner Canyon, now a wide sound full of islands
40. GANGES CHASMA, a dead-end arm of lower Mariner Canyon, now a wide, deep, cliffwalled sound
41. GREAT ESCARPMENT: cliffs roughly girdling Mars, as the Southern Highlands drop to the North Sea basin. Prominent above Isidis Bay and Amazonia
42. GUSEV CRATER, in Aeolia, is now a lake... again.
43. MT HADRIACA, a volcano at the southeast end of Tyrrhena Highland, north of Hellas Basin
44. HARMAKIS VALLEY, a fjord and river valley, east Hellas
45. HEBES CHASMA, a deep pit with a central mesa southeast of Echus Chasma and Kasei; the source of the Kasei outbreak. Now a cliffwalled valley with lakes.
46. the HELLAS SEA, a deep, dense-aired basin, now a Terran terrarium; warmest place on Mars
47. HERSCHEL, a large crater, now an oasis northeast of Hellas
48. HESPERIA, a steppe revived at last
49. HUYGENS, a huge crater, now an oasis with a central lake, northwest of Hellas
50. the IAPYGIAN SINK, a fertile mystery; a trough between the North Sea and Hellas
51. ISIDIS BAY, an old impact basin, now a coral sea
52. IUS CHASMA, a straight canyon linking Noctis Labyrinthus and Melas Chasma in the upper Mariner complex
53. JUVENTA CHASM, a cliffwalled sink in southern Xanthe
54. KASEI VALLEY, a prairie north of Mariner Canyon; prezebra and elephant heaven
55. KEPLER, a large crater, now an oasis east of Hellas
56. LOMONOSOV, a large northern crater, now a tundra island
57. LOWELL, a deep double-walled crater, now a large southern oasis
58. LUCUS FOSSAE, now a ridged and grooved equatorial cape southwest of Olympus
59. the LUNAE PLANUM, a tropical plain--but wet or dry? My guess: wooded ends, grassy middle
60. the LYCUS SULCI, a wrinkled lava coast west of Olympus; one of Mars's few coastal deserts
61. LYOT, biggest crater of the north, now a rugged, dark-forested, ringshaped island
62. MA'ADIM RIVER, a long southern stream flowing north into Gusev Crater
63. MAJA VALLEY, a canyon in Xanthe whose river drains Juventa Chasm
64. MALEA PLAIN, a low steppe southwest of Hellas; mild for the region; a migration corridor to Argyre
65. MANGALA VALLEY southwest of Olympus; a river on the edge of life
66. MAREOTIS FOSSAE, a mountain range in Tempe with more ridges than grooves, despite its name
67. MARGARITIFER CHAOS, a large, indescribable mess in the lower Mariner Canyon complex
68. MARINER CANYONS, less certain than you think
69. the MARINER DELTA, lenticular heaven
70. MAWRTH RIVER, a winding, seasonal stream east of the Mariner Delta; border of Cydonia
71. MEDUSA VALLEY, east end of the Martian jungle, not far from Olympus
72. MELAS CHASMA, the center of the Mariner canyon complex, now flooded and full of islands.
73. MERIDIA, Terra Meridiani, now an equatorial grass-belt separating two deserts, Araby and Noachia
74. MIE, a northern crater, now a cool, rainy ring-island
75. MTS OF MITCHEL, an icy arm of the South Polar Cap reaching toward Hellas
76. NEPENTHE VALLEY, an equatorial floodplain southeast of Isidis Bay; the Martian Eden
77. NEREIDIM MONTES, the arcuate mountains northwest of the Argyre Sea; a giant craterwall
78. NEWTON, a very deep, forested crater in the Southern Highlands between Aonia and Cimmeria
79. NILI PATERA, a shield volcano in Syrtis creating a rainshadow
80. the NILO COAST, a vast, cool coastal forest; the wide east end is the Proto Coast, the narrow west the Deutero Coast
81. NILOSYRTIS MENSAE, a stormy archipelago; Syrtis Islands to the locals
82. the NIRGAL VALLEY, a dry prairie north of Argyre
83. NOACHIA, a cratered desert; impact chaos
84. NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS, the Maze of Night at the head of Mariner Canyon; snowy plateaus, dark-wooded canyons
85. NORTH SEA, Mars's mother ocean, alive again
86. OLYMPUS, a quickly glaciating monster
87. OPHIR CHASMA, north-central arm of Mariner Canyon, now a small sound full of islands
88. ORCUS PATERA, a shattered shield volcano, now twin craggy islands
89. OUDEMANS, a crater just south of upper Mariner Canyon, now lake-filled
90. the OUTFLOW CHANNELS, Mariner Canyon's delta
91. OXIA PALLIS, a crater largely worn away by the Mariner flood
92. PAVONIS MONS, a volcano of Tharsis, rivaling Oympus in height; narrow cliffwalled throat
93. PHLEGRA PENINSULA, a rugged peninsula of northern Elysium
94. PROTO COAST, a vast, cool coastal forest north of Araby
95. PROTONILUS MENSAE, a Siberian archipelago off the Proto Coast; to the locals, the Proto Islands
96. REULL VALLEY, a broad river valley east of Hellas Basin. Warm for the Southlands.
97. SCHIAPARELLI, a great crater in Meridia, now an oasis--marsh, savanna and woods.
98. SHALBATANA VALLEY, an old outflow channel just north of Ganges Chasma; now a river valley
99. SIMUD VALLEY, an outflow channel, now the mouth of Mariner Sound
100. SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS: Noachia, Aonia and Sirena, Cimmeria, Promethea, Hesperia; broken by the great lowlands of Hellas and Argyre
101. SYRTIS, the green west coast of Isidis Bay, rising to dark Mt Nili
102. TEMPE, a Martian Siberia, north of Tharsis; cold woods, bare ridges
103. THARSIS RISE or BULGE, a huge lava plateau rising into space
104. THARSIS THOLUS or MT THARSIS, a large volcano near the east edge of Tharsis Bulge
105. TITHONIUS CHASMA, a dead-end branch of Mariner Canyon, now much enlarged
106. TIU VALLEY, an outflow channel, now an equatorial sound
107. TRIVIUM CHARONTIS, eastern Elysium's fertile plain
108. TYRRHENA, an equatorial yet alpine plateau between Hellas and Isidis Bay
109. MT. TYRRHENIUS, a shield volcano east of Tyrrhrena Plateau and west of Hesperia
110. UTOPIA PLANITIA, now the Sea of Utopia, a lobe of the Northern Ocean
111. URANIUS PATERA, a large volcanic vent in north-central Tharsis, now a high-altitude crater lake
112. VASTITAS BOREALIS, the northern sea-basin, now refilled
113. XANTHE, a channeled plain--warm, but how fertile? I suspect a savanna heart but wooded ends

Index of Martian place names

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