List of lunar features


The surface of the Moon has many features, including mountains and valleys, craters, and plains, amongst others.

Lunar plain features

Lunar maria are large, dark, regions of the Moon. They do not contain any water, but are believed to have been formed from molten rock from the Moon's mantle coming out onto the surface of the Moon. This list also includes the one oceanus and the features known by the names lacus, palus and sinus. The modern system of lunar nomenclature was introduced in 1651 by Riccioli. Riccioli's map of the Moon was drawn by Francesco Maria Grimaldi, who has a crater named after him.
There is also a region on the Lunar farside that was briefly misidentified as a mare and named Mare Desiderii. It is no longer recognized. Other former maria include:
  • Mare Parvum, immediately to the east of Inghirami
  • Mare Incognitum
  • Mare Novum, northeast of Plutarch
  • Mare Struve, near Messala
A related set of features are the Lunar lacus, which are smaller basaltic plains of similar origin. A related set of features are the sinus and paludes. Some sources also list a Palus Nebularum at 38.0° N, 1.0° E, but the designation for this feature has not been officially recognized by the IAU.

Craters

The large majority of these features are impact craters. The crater nomenclature is governed by the International Astronomical Union, and this list only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.
The lunar craters are listed in the following subsections. Where a formation has associated satellite craters, these are detailed on the main crater description pages.

''Catenae''

A catena is a chain of craters.
NameCoordinatesDiameterName origin
Catena Abulfeda219 kmAfter nearby crater Abulfeda
Catena Artamonov134 kmAfter nearby crater Artamonov
Catena Brigitte5 kmFrench feminine name
Catena Davy50 kmAfter nearby crater Davy
Catena Dziewulski80 kmAfter nearby crater Dziewulski
Catena Gregory152 kmAfter nearby crater Gregory
Catena Humboldt165 kmAfter nearby crater Humboldt
Catena Krafft60 kmAfter nearby crater Krafft
Catena Kurchatov226 kmAfter nearby crater Kurchatov
Catena Leuschner364 kmAfter nearby crater Leuschner
Catena Littrow10 kmAfter nearby crater Littrow
Catena Lucretius271 kmAfter nearby crater Lucretius
Catena Mendeleev188 kmAfter nearby crater Mendeleev
Catena Michelson456 kmAfter nearby crater Michelson
Catena Pierre9 kmFrench masculine name
Catena Sumner247 kmAfter nearby crater Sumner
Catena Sylvester173 kmAfter nearby crater Sylvester
Catena Taruntius100 kmAfter nearby crater Taruntius
Catena Timocharis50 kmAfter nearby crater Timocharis
Catena Yuri5 kmRussian masculine name

Valleys

Several large lunar valleys have been given names. Most of them are named after a nearby crater; see the list of craters on the Moon for more information.
ValleyCoordinatesDimensionEponymCrater
Vallis Alpes166 kmLatin name meaning "Alpine valley"-
Vallis Baade203 kmWalter BaadeBaade
Vallis Bohr80 kmNiels BohrBohr
Vallis Bouvard284 kmAlexis Bouvard-
Vallis Capella49 kmMartianus CapellaCapella
Vallis Inghirami148 kmGiovanni InghiramiInghirami
Vallis Palitzsch132 kmJohann PalitzschPalitzsch
Vallis Planck451 kmMax PlanckPlanck
Vallis Rheita445 kmAnton Maria Schyrleus of RheitaRheita
Vallis Schrödinger310 kmErwin SchrödingerSchrödinger
Vallis Schröteri168 kmJohann Hieronymus SchröterSchröter
Vallis Snellius592 kmWillebrord SnellSnellius

Mountains

The heights of the isolated mountains or massifs listed here are not consistently reported across sources. In the 1960s, the US Army Mapping Service used elevation relative to 1,737,988 meters from the center of the Moon. In the 1970s, the US Defense Mapping Agency used 1,730,000 meters. The Clementine topographic data published in the 1990s uses 1,737,400 meters.
This list is not comprehensive, and does not list the highest places on the Moon. Clementine data show a range of about 18,100 meters from lowest to highest point on the Moon. The highest point, located on the far side of the Moon, is approximately 6500 meters higher than Mons Huygens.
Mountains are referred to using the Latin word mons.
NameLat./Long.Dia.Ht.Name origin
Mons Agnes0.65 km0.03 kmGreek feminine name
Mons Ampère30 km3.0 kmAndré-Marie Ampère, physicist
Mons André10 km7.0 kmFrench masculine name
Mons Ardeshir8 km5.9 kmArdeshir, Persian male name
Mons Argaeus50 km2.6 kmMount Erciyes, Asia Minor
Mont Blanc25 km3.6 kmMont Blanc, the Alps
Mons Bradley30 km4.2 kmJames Bradley, astronomer
Mons Delisle30 km1.0 kmNamed after nearby crater Delisle
Mons Dieter20 km8.0 kmGerman masculine name
Mons Dilip2 km5.5 kmIndian masculine name
Mons Esam8 km0.4 kmArabic masculine name
Mons Ganau14 km7.9 kmAfrican masculine name
Mons Gruithuisen Delta20 km1.8 kmNamed after nearby crater Gruithuisen
Mons Gruithuisen Gamma20 km1.5 kmNamed after nearby crater Gruithuisen
Mons Hadley25 km4.6 kmJohn Hadley, inventor
Mons Hadley Delta15 km3.5 kmNamed after nearby Mount Hadley
Mons Hansteen30 km Named after nearby crater Hansteen
Mons Herodotus5 km1.0 kmNamed after nearby crater Herodotus
Mons Huygens40 km4.7 kmChristiaan Huygens, astronomer
Mons La Hire25 km1.5 kmPhilippe de la Hire, astronomer
Mons Maraldi15 km1.3 kmNamed after nearby crater Maraldi
Mons Moro10 km Antonio Lazzaro Moro, Earth scientist
Mons Penck30 km4.0 kmAlbrecht Penck, geographer
Mons Pico25 km2.0 kmSpanish for "peak"
Mons Piton25 km2.3 kmEl Pitón, a summit of Mount Teide, Tenerife
Mons Rümker70 km0.5 kmKarl Ludwig Christian Rümker, astronomer
Mons Usov15 km Mikhail Usov, geologist
Mons Vinogradov25 km1.4 kmAleksandr Pavlovich Vinogradov, chemist
Mons Vitruvius15 km2.3 kmNamed after nearby crater Vitruvius
Mons Wolff35 km3.5 kmBaron Christian von Wolff, philosopher

Mountain ranges

NameLat./Long.Dia.Name origin
Montes Agricola141 kmGeorgius Agricola, Earth scientist
Montes Alpes281 kmThe Alps, Europe
Montes Apenninus401 kmThe Apennine Mountains, Italy
Montes Archimedes163 kmNamed after nearby crater Archimedes
Montes Carpatus361 kmThe Carpathian Mountains, Europe
Montes Caucasus445 kmThe Caucasus Mountains, Europe
Montes Cordillera574 kmSpanish for "mountain chain"
Montes Haemus560 kmGreek name for the Balkan Mountains
Montes Harbinger90 kmHarbingers of dawn on the crater Aristarchus
Montes Jura422 kmThe Jura Mountains, Europe
Montes Pyrenaeus164 kmThe Pyrenees Mountains, Europe
Montes Recti90 kmLatin for "straight range"
Montes Riphaeus189 kmGreek name for the Ural Mountains, Russia
Montes Rook791 kmLawrence Rook, astronomer
Montes Secchi50 kmNamed after nearby crater Secchi
Montes Spitzbergen60 kmNamed after German for "sharp peaks" and for resemblance to the Spitsbergen islands
Montes Taurus172 kmTaurus Mountains, Asia Minor
Montes Teneriffe182 kmTenerife island