Amperia Geographic Survey

The **Amperia Geographic Survey** is an exploration survey designed to discover and classify all landmarks, natural or artificial, in Amperia. It also assigns names and nomenclature. After a brief period of time when Ampersand20's modpack would not work properly, all JourneyMap data was lost and so much of the explored regions have not been remapped yet.

## Nomenclature

	+ Hill - Defined as any prominent rise in terrain rising higher than 30 blocks above the surrounding area and with a well-defined highest point.
	+ Ridge - Defined as any mountainous ridge with no significant variation along the top.
	+ Range - Defined as an interconnected system of mountains.
	+ Bubble mountain - Defined as any mountain with a large cave system underneath or inside of it.
	+ Scarp - Defined as a plateau that rises sharply from the terrain and generally follows biome borders (i.e. Meadow Scarp vs Plains lowlands).
* Wetland - Defined as any body of water smaller than an ocean and not directly part of an ocean.
	+ River - Defined as any flat, Y=63, long body of water that meanders from a source to an outlet or termination.
		- Source - Defined as the shallowest end of a river, if the river does not end in another body of water.
		- Outlet - Defined as the deepest end of a river, or where the river terminates at another body of water.
	+ Stream - Defined as any water spring that flows down a slope into a body of water.
	+ Marsh - Defined as the shallow, murky bank of a wetland in a swamp.
	+ Lake - Defined as either a large, enclosed Ocean biome or a large, enclosed area of submerged land, that may or may not be fed by a river or stream.
		- Pond - Defined as a small, natural body of water generating at any elevation.
		- Magma Lake - Defined as a small, natural body of lava generating on the surface of the world.
	+ Aquifer - Defined as any body of water partly or wholly contained by baserock.
		- Magma Aquifer - Defined as a large body of lava partly or wholly contained by baserock.
			* Magma Ocean - Defined as the body of lava found at low levels pervading the entirety of the Nether, only occasionally partitioned by netherrack.
		- Flooded Cavern - Defined as an aquifer that connects directly through a wide opening to an ocean or a wetland.
* Geographical Region - Defined as an area marked by a specific mixture of biomes or a type of terrain.
	+ Biome - Defined as an area with specific flora and fauna, and usually unique grass and water color.
		- Ecosystem - Defined as an area within a biome with unique features (terrain, rare animal spawns, etc) distinguishing it from the rest of the biome.
	+ Botanical Region - Defined as an area within a geographical region where a species of flora will easily grow, crossing biomes.
* Cavern - Defined as any area below the surface traversable or explorable by players without having to mine out large areas.
	+ Noodle Cavern - Defined as a long, very narrow cavern that may weave in any direction.
	+ Spaghetti Cavern - Defined as a typical cavern, about 5 to 10 blocks in diameter, usually opening to the surface and connecting to large system underground.
	+ Cheese Cavern - Defined as an extremely voluminous open cavern supported by large pillars, sometimes stretching from the bottom of the world to the surface.
	+ Crater - Defined as a deep, open-air pit with sloping walls that doesn't connect to any cave systems.
	+ Cenote - Defined as a very deep, open-air pit that connects to other cave systems and many have water at the bottom.
	+ Canyon - Defined as a mainly vertical crack in the baserock up to 40 blocks deep that may connect with other cave systems.
	+ Grotto - Defined as any crack in the surface or baserock that is similar in size to a Canyon but is tilted to the side or even nearly horizontal.
	+ Cave System - Defined as an interconnected series of Cheese Caverns. The edge of a Cave System is usually 32 blocks from the edge of a Cheese Cavern.
	+ Subterranean Interconnection System (SIS) - Defined as the mass of underground caves that are nearly guaranteed to intersect with each other, proving the mapping of all caves connected to any one cave impossible.
* Island - Defined as any piece of land that doesn't share the Ocean's biome and has an area greater than 64 blocks.
	+ Sandbar - Defined as any piece of land that is too small to be considered an island.
	+ Floating Island - Defined as any significant piece of land that is freely floating in midair, without any connection whatsoever to the ground.

## Naming Conventions

Mountains, generally, are named after famous Minecraft YouTubers. Exceptions include: Bubble Mountains (Twitch streamers) and Scarps (famous Minecraft mods).

Rivers and Streams are named after real-life rivers or player request. Lakes are named after real-life lakes or player request. Ponds are not given unique names, and are instead designated with the code X\_Z\_Biome\_N, where X and Z are the coordinates in absolute value, "Biome" is the biome number it is located in, and N is the number it was given. For example, if there were 40 known ponds in the Plains biome and another was found at -500, -683, the pond would be designated "Pond 500\_683\_1\_41". It is a fairly complicated designation but helpful due to the sheer number of ponds. Certain ponds many be given regular names as well. Marshes are named after Scottish and Irish Lochs. Aquifers and flooded caverns are named after sea monsters or deep-sea creatures, while magma ponds and aquifers are named after real-life volcanoes.

Caves are not given names or designations at the moment, besides Cave Systems, Grottos, and Canyons. The Subterranean Interconnection System is nicknamed "Cthulhu," but is otherwise not named due to its assumed infinite size.

Islands are named after real-life islands, while Floating Islands (as well as large End Islands) are named after celestial objects. Small End Islands are given designations similar to the IAU's method of asteroid numbering.