science

Mare Humorum

Mare Humorum 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 Humorum rather than just read about it. In short: Mare Humorum (Latin hūmōrum, the "Sea of Moisture" or "Sea of Humors") is a lunar mare. The impact basin it is located in is 425 kilometers (264 mi) across.

Key takeaways

Mare Humorum 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 Humorum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mare Humorum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mare Humorum (Latin hūmōrum, the "Sea of Moisture" or "Sea of Humors") is a lunar mare. The impact basin it is located in is 425 kilometers (264 mi) 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. The Humorum basin is filled with a thick layer of mare basalt, 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. 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 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.

Names Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Humorum was named by Giovanni Riccioli, 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, which he had named after the Caspian Sea), and Michael van Langren had labelled it the Mare Venetum ("Venetian Sea") in his 1645 map. Johannes Hevelius called it Sinus Sirbonis ("Bay of Serbonis", after the lake of Serbonis, now Lake Bardawil, in Egypt) in his 1647 map.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mare Humorum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mare Humorum 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 Humorum 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 Humorum 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 Humorum

In research: Mare Humorum 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 Humorum 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 Humorum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics LQ19 quadrangle, Maria on the Moon, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mare Humorum 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 Humorum in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Mare Humorum in simple terms?

Mare Humorum (Latin hūmōrum, the "Sea of Moisture" or "Sea of Humors") is a lunar mare. The impact basin it is located in is 425 kilometers (264 mi) across.

Why does Mare Humorum 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 Humorum?

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 Humorum.