juliensimon/mercury-craters-herrick

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Mercury Crater Database (Herrick et al. 2011)"
language:
- en
description: "Global Mercury impact crater catalog with 16,876 craters from MESSENGER imagery (Herrick et al. 2011). Includes morphology and size classification."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- space
- mercury
- crater
- planetary-science
- messenger
- open-data
- tabular-data
- parquet
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/mercury_craters.parquet
default: true
---

# Mercury Crater Database (Herrick et al. 2011)

<div align="center">
<img src="banner.jpg" alt="The Moon seen from Apollo 8, showing craters and surface detail" width="400">
<p><em>Credit: NASA/Apollo 8</em></p>
</div>

*Part of the [Planetary Science Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/planetary-science-datasets-69c2d4683bd6a66c34fb4af2) collection on Hugging Face.*

The global Mercury impact crater database containing **16,876** craters identified from Mariner 10 and MESSENGER flyby imagery. This catalog provides the most complete inventory of Mercury's cratered surface, with morphological classifications for interior shape, rim geometry, and central structures.

## Dataset description

This database was compiled by Robert R. Herrick, Samantha Curran, and Alicia Baer (2011) as the first systematic global catalog of Mercury's impact craters. Using combined Mariner 10 and MESSENGER imagery covering ~98% of Mercury's surface, every identifiable crater was mapped with position, diameter, and morphological attributes. The catalog includes 286 named craters (IAU designations) and 111 rayed craters indicating relatively recent impacts.

Mercury's heavily cratered surface records ~4 billion years of bombardment history in the inner solar system. Unlike the Moon, Mercury lacks large-scale volcanic resurfacing (outside the northern plains), making its crater record one of the most complete in the solar system. The transition from simple to complex craters occurs at ~10 km on Mercury — smaller than Mars (~6-8 km) but larger than the Moon (~15 km) — reflecting Mercury's higher surface gravity. Central peak craters, peak-ring basins, and multi-ring structures follow well-defined scaling laws that constrain crustal thickness and composition.

This dataset completes the **crater quad** alongside [Lunar Craters](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/lunar-craters-robbins), [Mars Craters](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mars-craters-robbins), and [Ceres Craters](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/ceres-craters-dawn), enabling cross-body crater population studies across the inner solar system.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `crater_id` | int64 | Unique crater identifier |
| `latitude_deg` | float64 | Crater center latitude (degrees North) |
| `longitude_deg` | float64 | Crater center longitude (degrees East, -180 to 180) |
| `diameter_km` | float64 | Crater rim-to-rim diameter (km) |
| `interior_shape` | string | Interior morphology: b=bowl, sh=shallow, ff=flat-floored, x=indeterminate |
| `rim_shape` | string | Rim morphology: c=circular, sc=subcircular, t=polygonal/terraced, x=indeterminate |
| `central_structure` | string | Central structure: n=none, cp=central peak, mp=multiple peaks, pi=pit, pr=peak ring, mr=multiple rings |
| `rayed` | string | Rayed crater flag (y/n) |
| `name` | string | IAU crater name (if assigned) |
| `size_class` | string | Derived: small (<10 km), medium (10-50), large (50-200), giant (>200) |
| `has_central_structure` | bool | Derived: True if central_structure is not none/indeterminate |

## Quick stats

- **16,876** total craters
- **286** named (IAU designated)
- **111** rayed craters
- **1413** with central structures (peaks, pits, or rings)
- Size distribution: 4,212 small, 10,997 medium, 1,617 large, 50 giant
- Diameter range: 3.5 -- 1572.6 km (median 14.9 km)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/mercury-craters-herrick", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Size-frequency distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["diameter_km"].hist(bins=100, log=True)
plt.xlabel("Diameter (km)")
plt.ylabel("Count")
plt.title("Mercury Crater Size-Frequency Distribution")
plt.show()

# Map of named craters
named = df[df["name"].notna()]
plt.scatter(named["longitude_deg"], named["latitude_deg"],
s=named["diameter_km"] / 10, alpha=0.6)
for _, row in named.head(15).iterrows():
plt.annotate(row["name"], (row["longitude_deg"], row["latitude_deg"]),
fontsize=6, alpha=0.7)
plt.xlabel("Longitude (°E)")
plt.ylabel("Latitude (°N)")
plt.title("Named Mercury Craters")
plt.show()

# Morphology breakdown
print(df["central_structure"].value_counts())
print(f"Rayed craters: {len(df[df['rayed'] == 'y'])}")
```

## Data source

Herrick, R.R., Curran, S., and Baer, A. (2011), *A Mariner/MESSENGER global catalog of mercurian craters.*
Icarus, 215(1), 452-454. [doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.06.021](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2011.06.021)

## Related datasets

- [Lunar Craters (Robbins 2019)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/lunar-craters-robbins) — 2M+ Moon craters
- [Mars Craters (Robbins & Hynek 2012)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mars-craters-robbins) — 384K+ Mars craters
- [Ceres Craters (Dawn)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/ceres-craters-dawn) — 44K Ceres craters
- [IAU Planetary Nomenclature](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/planetary-nomenclature) — Named features across all bodies

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mercury-craters-herrick) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{mercury_craters_herrick,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Mercury Crater Database (Herrick et al. 2011)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/mercury-craters-herrick},
note = {Based on Herrick, Curran & Baer (2011) via University of Alaska}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)