The term Ceraunius is from an albedo feature at lat. 19.78°N, long. 267°E. It was named by Greek Astronomer E. M. Antoniadi in 1930 for the Ceraunian Mountains on the coast of Epirus, Greece (now southwestern Albania). Fossa (pl. fossae) is Latin for ditch and is a descriptor term used in planetary geology for a long, narrow depression or trench. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally adopted the term Ceraunius Fossae in 1973. The name Ceraunius Fossae is plural and translates into the Ceraunian trenches.