  In this paper we show that the moduli space of nodal cubic surfaces is
isomorphic to a quotient of a 4-dimensional complex ball by an arithmetic
subgroup of the unitary group. This complex ball uniformization uses the
periods of certain K3 surfaces which are naturally associated to cubic
surfaces. A similar uniformization is given for the covers of the moduli space
corresponding to geometric markings of the Picard group or to the choice of a
line on the surface. We also give a detailed description of the boundary
components corresponding to singular surfaces.
