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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 ...
The major products of volcanic processes on the Moon are evident to Earth-bound observers in the form of the lunar maria. These are large flows of basaltic lava that correspond to low-albedo surfaces covering nearly a third of the near side. Only a few percent of the farside has been affected by mare volcanism.
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.
The modern system of lunar nomenclature was introduced in 1651 by Giovanni Battista Riccioli. [1] Riccioli's map of the Moon was drawn by Francesco Maria Grimaldi, who has a crater named after him. A related set of features are the Lunar lacus / ˈ l eɪ k ə s / (singular also lacus, Latin for "lake"), [a] which are smaller basaltic plains of ...
Arcuate rilles have a smooth curve and are found on the edges of the dark lunar maria. They are believed to have formed when the lava flows that created a mare cooled, contracted and sank. These are found all over the Moon, examples can be seen near the south-western border of Mare Tranquillitatis and on the south-eastern border of Mare Humorum.
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.
Unnamed wrinkle ridges north of the lunar crater Flamsteed, Oceanus Procellarum, from Apollo 12. A wrinkle ridge is a type of feature commonly found on lunar maria, or basalt plains. These features are low, sinuous ridges formed on the mare surface that can extend for up to several hundred kilometers.
The most recent lunar geologic map (2020) identifies the older mare next to Lichtenberg as being as Upper Imbrian. [3] Lunar scientist Paul Spudis advocates an unmanned sample-return mission to the young mare to obtain an absolute radiometric date that would constrain the time period of the formation of the maria on the moon. [4]