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What does Maria mean on the Moon?
What is a lunar maria?
How did the lunar maria form?
What is a Maria in geology?
Maria are the large, smooth, dark areas of the Moon's surface. They have few craters. This is a Latin word for "seas" (think of mare). These regions, like most of the Moon, are devoid of water. Interesting fact: Ancient observers would look onto the moon and would imagine the dark patches as oceans.
- Lunar Mare Formation
- Are There Maria on The Far Side of The Moon?
- How Are Lunar Maria named?
- Notable Maria
- Summary
Around 4.1 billion years ago, the newly-formed Moon was still cooling after its formation. It formed a thin crust on the outermost surfaceon top of hot bubbling magma. It was then that the Moon witnessed huge asteroid impacts that cracked the surface, leaving large craters in their wake. The liquid magma underneath the surfaceflowed out through the...
Following the first Soviet exploration of the Moon’s far side in 1959, scientists noted that it has fewer flat, dark maria than the side locked facing Earth. Yet, impact craters are uniformly seen on both sides of the Moon, so it took some time and further analysis to discover why there are fewer lunar maria on the dark side of the Moon. We now bel...
Like most things in astronomy, there is a naming convention for the Moon’s seas. Before we look at what the convention is, it’s worth noting the two maria that had their names fixed before the convention was established: Mare Humboldtianum and Mare Smythii. The former is named for the German polymath Alexander von Humboldt, the latter for British a...
There are a little more than 20 lunar maria worth knowing about. Let’s take a look at each of these, where they are located, and why they are important.
Although humans first mistook lunar maria to be water-filled seas, these maria are an important part of the moon’s history and tell us a lot about its formation. After the moon was hit with meteorites, the impact basins that formed as a result were filled with lava that oozed out from the surface (because the moon was still cooling down). We hope t...
They called the dark areas “seas” (maria in Latin, or mare in the singular, pronounced “mah ray”). Their names, Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds), Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility), and so on, are still in use today.
The lunar maria (or plains), which were formed between 3.1 and 3.9 billion years ago, are the youngest geologic units on the lunar surface, except for more recent impact craters. The release of heat from large impacts caused extensive melting and extrusion of basaltic lavas on the moon.
Dec 13, 2020 · Definition. Maria are medium- to large-size mostly circular flat-floored low-albedo plains on the Earth’s Moon and the Saturnian satellite Titan. On the Moon maria are formed by basaltic flood volcanism and are predominant on the lunar nearside.
- Stephan.vanGasselt@fu-berlin.de
Jan 1, 2023 · Definition The lunar mare, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions, is one of the main geographical units on the lunar surface (Peters and Grabarek 2011 ). It is mostly distributed on the lunar nearside and is associated with large impact basins.
5 days ago · a dark region of considerable extent on the surface of the moon.
