Mare Frigoris
Contents
Mare Frigoris
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Lat: 56.0°N, Long: 1.4°E, Diam: 1,596 km, Depth: km, Rükl: 4 |
Clementine The dark circular feature below center is the crater Plato. Mare Frigoris is the long dark band above this extending from the far right to the crater Harpalus on the left. The dark oval around Harpalus was originally known as Sinus Roris, but the part to the right of that crater is now considered to be the western end of Mare Frigoris.
Images
LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images
- The western part of Mare Frigoris is also seen on an extraordinary painting which was made by Chesley Bonestell, for the magazine Collier's (see: the fourth painting on page Collier's 2, in Fabio Femino's Fantascienza website). - DannyCaes Jan 13, 2008
- A curious field of twisted bay- and arc-shapes (the remains of small craters) is noticeable between La Condamine and J. Herschel (the area of Mare Frigoris north of La Condamine). The upper half of photograph LO IV-145-H3 shows the field of the twisted bay- and arc-shapes. See also LAC 11 (page 22) in Ben Bussey's and Paul Spudis's Clementine Atlas of the Moon.- DannyCaes Nov 18, 2008
Maps
(LAC zone 12C1) LAC map Geologic map
Description
Description: Wikipedia
Additional Information
- Mare area of 320,000 km^2 according to measurements by Jim Whitford-Stark.
- Two small pyroclastic deposits (area = 575 and 1000 km^2). Gaddis, L. (1999) Lunar Pyroclastic Volcanism Project.
Nomenclature
- Mare Frigoris is Latin for "Sea of Cold".
- The eastern portion was named Insula Borealis (Northern Island) in a pre-telescopic sketch map by William Gilbert in ~1600 [ Whitaker, p 15]
- Called Boreum Mare (Northern Sea) by Gassendi in late 1630s [ Whitaker, p 33].
- Called Mare Astronomicum (Astronomer's Sea) on Langrenus' 1645 map [ Whitaker, p 192].
- The name Mare Frigoris was introduced on Riccioli's map. But according to Riccioli's definition, Mare Frigoris ended in the region to the north of the crater now known as La Condamine, and the dark mare patch around Harpalus (and extending to the area north of La Condamine) was regarded as a separate feature called Sinus Roris.
- For unknown reasons, subsequent cartographers extended Mare Frigoris to include the dark mare to the east of Harpalus, but (apparently) not the ones to the west. This pushed Sinus Roris to the west, and left it with an ill-defined status from which it has never recovered.
LPOD Articles
Long, Thin and Yellow A Long, Cold Mare
Lunar 100
L26: Arcuate mare of uncertain origin.
Bibliography
- Whitford-Stark (1990) The volcanotectonic evolution of Mare Frigoris
- Wood, C.A. 9/2005. A Basin Too Big to Believe. S&T 110(3):63-64
- Wood, C.A. Jun. 2003. Frigoris and Beyond. S&T June 2003 v105 p112
