NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Mare Imbrium

Mare Imbrium, Latin for "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains", is a vast lunar mare (mahr'-ay) filling a basin on Earth's Moon. Mare Imbrium was created when lava flooded the giant crater formed when a very large object hit the moon long ago. The moon's maria (mahr'-ee-ah) (plural of mare) have fewer features than other areas of the moon because molten lava pooled in the craters and formed a relatively smooth surface. Mare Imbrium is not as flat as it was originally because later events have altered its surface. Mare Imbrium Apollo 17 (NASA, PD) Mare Imbrium and Copernicus crater http://nssdc. ... Mare Imbrium Apollo 17 (NASA, PD) Mare Imbrium and Copernicus crater http://nssdc. ... Copernicus is a prominent lunar impact crater located on the eastern Oceanus Procellarum. ... NASA Logo Listen to this article Â· (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Lunar maria (singular: mare, pronounced MAH-ray) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earths Moon, formed by ancient basaltic flood eruptions caused by extremely large meteoroid impacts. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... Look up Lava, â€˜Aâ€˜a, or PÄhoehoe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Lava is molten rock that a volcano expels during an eruption. ... The word crater may refer to A landform resembling a pit or depression in the topography that can be formed in several ways: a meteorite impact with another body can cause an impact crater, an electrical discharge such as lightning may form a crater-like pit, volcanic activity may form... A mare is a female horse. ...

With a diameter of 1123 km it is second only to Oceanus Procellarum in size among the maria, and it is the largest mare associated with an impact basin. Apollo 15 landed in the southwestern region of Mare Imbrium, near the Apennine Mountains. To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 106 and 107 m (1,000 and 10,000 km). ... The Ocean of Storms of the Moon. ... Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the Apollo program and the fourth mission to land on the Moon. ...

Mare Imbrium is between 3700 million and 3900 million years old (3.7 to 3.9 'American billion' years old), and is the youngest of the lunar maria except for Mare Orientale. To help compare orders of magnitude of different times this page lists times between 1017 seconds and 1018 seconds (3200 million years and 32 000 million years) See also times of other orders of magnitude. ... 1967 photograph made by NASAs Lunar Orbiter 4 Like a target ring bulls-eye, the lunar mare Mare Orientale (the eastern sea) is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. ...

The Imbrium Basin is surrounded by three concentric rings of mountains, uplifted by the colossal impact event that excavated it. The outermost ring of mountains has a diameter of 1300 km and is divided into several different ranges; the Montes Carpatus to the south, the Montes Apenninus to the southwest, and the Montes Caucasus to the east. The ring mountains are not as well developed to the north and west, and it appears they were simply not raised as high in these regions by the Imbrium impact. The middle ring of mountains forms the Montes Alpes and the mountainous regions near the craters Archimedes and Plato. The innermost ring, with a diameter of 600 km, has been largely buried under the mare's basalt leaving only low hills protruding through the mare plains and mare ridges forming a roughly circular pattern. Montes Carpatus is a mountain range that forms the southern edge of the Mare Imbrium on the Moon. ... The Apennine Mountains of the Moon. ... The Caucasus mountain range on the Moon lies along the eastern edge of Mare Imbrium. ... Montes Alpes is a mountain range in the northern part of the Moons near side. ... This article is about impact craters, also known as meteor craters. ... Archimedes is a large lunar impact crater on the eastern edges of the Mare Imbrium. ... Plato is the maria-surfaced remains of a lunar impact crater. ...

The outer ring of mountains rise roughly 7 km above the surface of Mare Imbrium. The mare material is thought to be about 5 km deep, giving the Imbrium Basin a total depth of 12 km; it is thought that the original crater left by the Imbrium impact was as much as 100 km deep, but the floor of the basin bounced back upward immediately afterward. To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 1 km and 10 km (103 and 104 m). ... To help compare orders of magnitude; this page lists lengths between 100 and 1,000 km (105 and 106 m). ...

Surrounding the Imbrium Basin is a region blanketed by ejecta from the impact, extending roughly 800 km outward. Also encircling the Imbrium basin is a pattern of radial grooves called the Imbrium Sculpture, which have been interpreted as furrows cut in the Moon's surface by large projectiles blasted out of the basin at low angles, causing them to skim across the lunar surface ploughing out these features. Furthermore, a Moon-wide pattern of faults which run both radial to and concentric to the Imbrium basin were thought to have been formed by the Imbrium impact; the event literally shattered the Moon's entire lithosphere. At the region of the Moon's surface exactly opposite Imbrium Basin there is a region of chaotic terrain which is thought to have been formed when the seismic waves of the impact were focused there after travelling through the Moon's interior.

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