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 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 ...
, 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 and
GRAIL
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraf ...
.
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 crater and
Promontorium Kelvin. 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
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraf ...
Names
Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Humorum was named by
Giovanni Riccioli
Giovanni Battista Riccioli, SJ (17 April 1598 – 25 June 1671) was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion ...
, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized. Previously, the 17th century astronomer
Pierre Gassendi 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 Cri ...
, which he had named after the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the 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 steppe of Central Asia ...
), and
Michael Van Langren had labelled it the Mare Venetum ("
Venetian 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 councillor ...
called it Sinus Sirbonis ("Bay of Serbonis", after the lake of
Serbonis, now
Lake Bardawil, 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 Medit ...
) in his 1647 map.
See also
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Volcanism on the Moon
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 large volcanic complexes and isolated ed ...
References
External links
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{{Lunar maria
Humorum