Mare Humorum (Latin ''hūmōrum'', the "Sea of Moisture") is a
lunar mare
The lunar maria (; singular: mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient asteroid impacts on the far side on the Moon that triggered volcanic activity on the opposite (near) side. They were dubbed , Latin for 'seas' ...
. The
impact basin it is located in is 425 kilometers across.
Geology
It was not sampled by the Apollo program, so a precise age has not been determined. However, geological mapping indicates that it is intermediate in age between the
Imbrium and
Nectaris
''Nectaris'', occasionally released as ''Military Madness'', is a series of sci-fi-themed, hex map turn-based strategy games for a variety of systems. The games were developed by Hudson Soft. The company was absorbed by Konami in 2012, and as ...
Basins, suggesting an age of about 3.9 billion years. Humorum Basin is filled with a thick layer of mare
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...
, believed to exceed 3 kilometers in thickness at the center of the basin.
A
mass concentration (mascon), or gravitational high, was identified in the center of Mare Humorum from Doppler tracking of the five
Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1968. The mascon was confirmed and mapped at higher resolution with later orbiters such as
Lunar Prospector
''Lunar Prospector'' was the third mission selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon ...
and
GRAIL.
On the north edge of Mare Humorum is the large
crater Gassendi, which was considered as a possible landing site for
Apollo 17. To the south are the floor-fractured
Vitello
Vitello ( pl, Witelon; german: Witelo; – 1280/1314) was a friar, theologian, natural philosopher and an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland.
Name
Vitello's name varies with some sources. In earlier publications he was quo ...
crater, the partially flooded
Doppelmayer, and the smaller
Puiseux. To the east are
Hippalus
Hippalus (Ancient Greek: Ἵππαλος) was a Greek navigator and merchant who probably lived in the 1st century BCE. He is sometimes conjectured to have been the captain of the Greek explorer Eudoxus of Cyzicus' ship.
The writer of the ''Peripl ...
crater and
Promontorium Kelvin
Promontorium Kelvin is a headland on the near side of the Moon. It is located in the southeast of the Mare Humorum. It is close to Rupes Kelvin. Its length is about 45 km. Its coordinates are . It was named after the British scientist, physicist ...
. To the west are the Rimae Doppelmayer and the Rupes Liebig, which are cliffs near
Liebig itself which is just west of the mare.
File:Humorum basin topo.jpg, Satellite image
File:Humorum basin GRAIL gravity.jpg, Gravity map based on GRAIL
Names
Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Humorum was named by
Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized. Previously, the 17th century astronomer
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi (; also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much ti ...
had named it Anticaspia ('opposite to the Caspian', referring to
Mare Crisium
Mare Crisium (Latin ''crisium'', the "Sea of Crises") is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. The basin is of the Pre-Imbrian period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago.
Characteristics
Mare C ...
, which he had named after the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...
), and
Michael Van Langren had labelled it the Mare Venetum ("
Venetian
Venetian often means from or related to:
* Venice, a city in Italy
* Veneto, a region of Italy
* Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area
Venetian and the like may also refer to:
* Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
Sea") in his 1645 map.
[Ewen A. Whitaker, ''Mapping and Naming the Moon'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p.41, 198.] Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius
Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Some sources refer to Hevelius as German:
*
*
*
*
*of the Royal Society
* (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillo ...
called it Sinus Sirbonis ("Bay of Serbonis", after the lake of
Serbonis, now
Lake Bardawil
Lake Bardawil ( ar, بحيرة البردويل ''Buḥayrat al-Bardawīl'' or سبخة البردويل ''Sabḵat al-Bardawīl''), is a large, very saline lagoon nearby the protected area of Zaranik (also known for diversities of insects and wa ...
, in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
) in his 1647 map.
See also
*
Volcanism on the Moon
References
External links
*
{{Lunar maria
Humorum