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Mare Frigoris

Mare Frigoris is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mare Frigoris rather than just read about it. In short: Mare Frigoris (Latin frīgōris, the "Sea of Cold") is a lunar mare in the far north of the Moon. It is located in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin, just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis.

Mare Frigoris — main illustration
Mare Frigoris — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Mare Frigoris belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Mare Frigoris to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Mare Frigoris from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mare Frigoris (Latin frīgōris, the "Sea of Cold") is a lunar mare in the far north of the Moon. It is located in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin, just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis. It is just north of the dark crater Plato. The basin material surrounding the mare is of the Lower Imbrian epoch, while the eastern mare material is of the Upper Imbrian epoch, and the western mare material is of the Eratosthenian epoch.

Name Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Frigoris was named by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized. Previously, William Gilbert had included it among the Insula Borealis ("Northern Island") in his map of c.1600, and Michael van Langren had labelled it the Mare Astronomicum ("Sea of Astronomy") in his 1645 map. Pierre Gassendi called it the Boreum Mare ('Northern Sea').

Research The second Hakuto-R mission from Japanese private spaceflight company ispace attempted to land at a Mare Frigoris site in June 2025 but failed.

In popular culture

This area of the Moon featured prominently in 'Behemoth', the second episode of the 1973 BBC science fiction mini-series Moonbase 3. Mare Frigoris was intended to be the original landing site of the fictionalised version of Apollo 15 in the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind, although in the show the crew decided last minute to divert the landing to Shackleton crater in the Lunar south pole upon finding out there is a high concentration of water ice in the area (a discovery not made in reality until the 1990s).

References

External links Media related to Mare Frigoris at Wikimedia Commons "A Violet Moon". Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). July 31, 1996. Retrieved August 22, 2017. Tectonics in Mare Frigoris - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter page and images

Illustrations

Mare Frigoris illustration
Mare Frigoris: Lunar Orbiter 4 image of Mare Frigoris and vicinity. This regional view is nearly orthogonal at top but highly oblique at bottom, and north is up and slightly to the right. Mare Frigoris is the dark band extending from upper left to lower right. Mare Imbrium and Sinus Iridum are in lower left. Prominent craters include Plato with dark flat floor in bottom center, Harpalus near left edge within the mare, Philolaus at top center, and Aristoteles in lower right within the mare.
Lunar Orbiter 4 image of Mare Frigoris and vicinity. This regional view is nearly orthogonal at top but highly oblique at bottom, and north is up and slightly to the right. Mare Frigoris is the dark band extending from upper left to lower right. Mare Imbrium and Sinus Iridum are in lower left. Prominent craters include Plato with dark flat floor in bottom center, Harpalus near left edge within the mare, Philolaus at top center, and Aristoteles in lower right within the mare.
Mare Frigoris: Mare Frigoris on a map of the lunar nearside with major maria and craters labelled.
Mare Frigoris on a map of the lunar nearside with major maria and craters labelled.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mare Frigoris

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mare Frigoris claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mare Frigoris before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mare Frigoris ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mare Frigoris

In research
Mare Frigoris appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Mare Frigoris in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Mare Frigoris is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Eratosthenian, Imbrian, LQ05 quadrangle, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Mare Frigoris outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mare Frigoris in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Mare Frigoris means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Mare Frigoris out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mare Frigoris in simple terms?

Mare Frigoris (Latin frīgōris, the "Sea of Cold") is a lunar mare in the far north of the Moon. It is located in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin, just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis.

Why does Mare Frigoris matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mare Frigoris?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mare Frigoris.

Tags

  • Eratosthenian
  • Imbrian
  • LQ05 quadrangle
  • Maria on the Moon

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