Home Equipment Moon Nebulae Galaxies

StarCo by Ludo Coppens                                        © 2014-2023                                   ludo.coppens(at)kineco.be

Select a mare by clicking on the name. Move the mouse over the full scale image of the larger region to show names of prominent surface features and additional data: depth from rim to crater floor and diameter, taken from the Times Atlas of the Moon (Ed. H.A.G. Lewis, Times Newspapers Ltd., 1969; charts available online at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LAC/) and from Virtual Moon Atlas (Christian Legrand & Patrick Chevalley).


 Crisium

 Frigoris

 Humorum

 Imbrium

 Insularum

 Nubium

 Serenitatis

 Tranquilitatis

 Vaporum



A mare (ENG: sea) is a huge roughly circular (up to about 1000 km diameter) plain covered with basaltic material. Originates in early lunar history when an asteroid of substantial diameter collides with the moon and forms an enormous crater. Fissures in the  crater floor reaching still molten lunar interior later (3.5 - 3 Gy ago) allow lava flows to surface and fill the depression. Mostly absent on far side of the moon.

(At right: Mare Imbrium)