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The near side of the Moon, with major maria and craters labeled. The lunar maria (/ ˈ m ær i. ə / MARR-ee-ə; sg. mare / ˈ m ɑːr eɪ,-i / MAR-ay, MAR-ee) [1] are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by lava flowing into ancient impact basins. They were dubbed maria (Latin for 'seas') by early astronomers who mistook them ...
1882 chart of the moon with maria. This is a list of maria (large, dark, basaltic plains) on the Moon. It includes other basaltic plains, including the one oceanus as well as features known by the names lacus, palus and sinus. The modern system of lunar nomenclature was introduced in 1651 by Giovanni Battista Riccioli. [1]
Lunar nearside with major maria and craters labeled Lunar maria (singular mare ) 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.
Mare Moscoviense (Latin for 'Sea of Moscow'; / ˌ m ɒ s k ə v i ˈ ɛ n s i / MOSK-ə-vee-EN-see) is a lunar mare that sits in the Moscoviense basin. It is one of the very few maria on the far side of the Moon. Like Mare Marginis, this mare appears to be fairly thin. However, it is clearly centered within a large impact basin.
It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Procellarum is the largest of the maria ("seas"), stretching more than 2,500 km (1,600 mi) across its north–south axis and covering roughly 4,000,000 km 2 (1,500,000 sq mi), accounting for 10.5% of the total lunar surface area. [2]
Unlike many other maria, there is no mass concentration (mascon), or gravitational high, in the center of Mare Tranquillitatis. Mascons were identified in the center of other maria (such as Serenitatis or Imbrium ) from Doppler tracking of the five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1968. [ 4 ]
The dark and relatively featureless lunar plains, clearly seen with the naked eye, are vast solidified pools of ancient lava called maria. Volcanism on the Moon is represented by the presence of volcanoes, pyroclastic deposits and vast lava plains on the lunar surface. The volcanoes are typically in the form of small domes and cones that form ...
Elevation map of Humboldtianum basin Oblique view from Apollo 16. Mare Humboldtianum / h ʌ m b oʊ l t i ˈ eɪ n ə m / (Latin humboldtiānum, the "Sea of Alexander von Humboldt") is a lunar mare located just to the east of Mare Frigoris, in the center of Humboldtianum basin.