Mare Fecunditatis

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Fecunditatis Basin

(unofficial name; IAU feature name for central 909 km of mare: Mare Fecunditatis, formerly Mare Foecunditatis )

Lat: 7.8°S, Long: 51.3°E, Main ring diam: 690 km, Basin depth: 1.84 km, Rükl: 48

external image normal_fecundatis04025.jpgexternal image normal_Fecunditatis_Basin_LIDAR_LTVT.JPG
Left: Eric Soucy, Right: Clementine, Clementine LIDAR Altimeter texture from PDS Map-a-Planet remapped to north-up aerial view by LTVT. The dot is the center position and the white circle the main ring position from Chuck Wood's Impact Basin Database. Grid spacing = 10 degrees.

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images

Maps

(LAC zone 80A4) LAC map Geologic map LTO map

Basin Classification

(description of terms and most numeric basin data from Wood, C.A. (2004) Impact Basin Database)
Certainty of Existence
USGS Age
Wilhelms Age Group
Ring Diameters
Mare Thickness
Mascon
Uncertain
Pre-Nectarian
3
690, 990 km

No


Description


Description: Wikipedia

Mare Fecunditatis

Additional Information

  • 1970, Sept.: Luna 16 - first automated sample return, from Mare Fecunditatis
  • Mare area of 220,000 km^2 according to measurements by Jim Whitford-Stark.


Nomenclature

  • Called Mare Langrenianum by the father of selenography Michel Florent Van Langren (aka Langrenus).
  • Called Mare Caspium by Johann Hewelcke (aka Hevelius).
  • Called Mare Fecunditatis (or Mare Foecunditatis) by Giovanni Baptista Riccioli.
  • The IAU feature name (Mare Fecunditatis) means "Sea of Fecundity" (or Fertility / Fruitfulness).
  • The impact basin is named after the mare.
  • The craters Taruntius G (Anville), Taruntius H, Taruntius K, and Taruntius P (all of them in the north-northwestern part of Mare Fecunditatis) were frequently photographed during several missions of the Apollo program. All four craters together look like some sort of "Constellation", or rather a "Constellation of Four" (thus nicknamed by Danny Caes, who's investigating all orbital Apollo photographs of these four craters, see page Anville).


LPOD Articles

Fecund Questions A Shallow Sea of Lava North-western surface Basin and lava Mare ridges Rays

LROC Articles

Mare Pit Topography! (Skylight in Mare Fecunditatis, unofficially called the Central Mare Fecunditatis Pit).

Bibliography

Rajmon, D & P Spudis (2000) Geology and Stratigraphy of Mare Fecunditatis. Lunar & Planetary Science 31, 1913.