The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’.
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What are the light and dark areas of the Moon called?
The near side of the moon has light areas referred to as Lunar Highlands and dark areas called Maria. The maria are lower in altitude than the highlands and filled with dark solidified lava from when the moon was volcanically active.
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Why are the dark areas of the Moon called mare?
The dark areas are known as “mare” (or maria) which is the Latin word for “seas”. They’re called maria because early scientists believed they could see oceans on the moon. But the dark stretches on the surface of the moon were not oceans at all. What the “maria” actually turned out to be were volcanic basins.
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What are the light and dark areas on the Moon?
The dark areas are young plains called maria and are composed of basalt. The basalt flowed in and flooded the area created by a huge impact with an asteroid or comet. The light areas are the highlands, which are mountains that were uplifted as a result of impacts.
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What is the dark area of the Moon called?
The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’.
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What are the light areas of the surface of the Moon called?
It is divided into light areas called the Lunar Highlands and darker areas called Maria (literally, “seas”; the singular is Mare).
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What are the dark areas of the Moon called and why?
Those spots are called maria, from the Latin word for sea, because early astronomers mistakenly thought they were lunar seas (they’re actually volcanic plains). The smooth and dark maria cover 17 percent of the surface of the moon. Almost all of them are visible from Earth.
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What does mare mean in Moon?
mare, plural maria, any flat, dark plain of lower elevation on the Moon. The term, which in Latin means “sea,” was erroneously applied to such features by telescopic observers of the 17th century.
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What are the dark areas on the Moon called maria?
The surface of the Moon is covered in huge dark spots, visible from Earth even with the naked eye. These patches are known as maria – a Latin word meaning ‘seas’. Prof Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at the Museum, works with rock samples and high-resolution images to study the history and geology of the Moon.
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Who named lunar maria?
The modern system of lunar nomenclature was introduced in 1651 by Giovanni Battista Riccioli.
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Why is the mare dark in color?
The mare regions have low reflectance because they contain relatively high amounts of iron oxide (FeO). Some mare basalts contain unusually high amounts of titanium oxide (TiO2) in addition to iron oxide, making for even lower reflectance. TiO2 also shifts the color of the mare from red to blue.
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