The lunar seas on the moon have nothing to do with what, in our understanding, the word "sea" means, they are anhydrous. So what are the seas on the moon? Who gave them such interesting names? Lunar seas are dark, even and rather large sections of the lunar surface visible to us from the Earth, a kind of foundation pits.
Sea on the moon - what kind of phenomenon?
Medieval astronomers, who first spotted these areas on the Moon, suggested that they were precisely seas filled with water. In the future, these sites were called quite romantically: the Sea of ​​Tranquility, the Sea of ​​Abundance, the Sea of ​​Rains, etc. As it turned out in reality, the lunar seas and oceans are lowlands, plains. Their formation was served by streams of frozen lava, pouring out from the crevices of the lunar crust, which appeared as a result of an attack by meteorites. Due to the fact that the cured lava has a darker color than the rest of the moon, from the Earth the lunar seas are visible precisely in the form of vast dark spots.
Ocean of Storms
The largest lunar sea, called the Ocean of Storms, has a length of more than 2,000 kilometers, and in total amazing troughs occupy about 16% of the satellite’s surface. This is the most extensive lava spill on the moon. It is unusual that there are no gravitational anomalies in it, that is, it suggests that space strikes did not fall on it. And perhaps the lava just flowed from neighboring dents.
Then, clockwise, three well-visible rounded seas open to us - Rains, Clarity and Tranquility. All copyrights to these names belong to Riccioli and Grimaldi, presumably to people with a very difficult character.
Features of the Sea of ​​Rains
Lunar Sea of ​​Rains is the most terrible scar on the face of the moon. According to some known data, this point was hit more than once: by asteroids and even, quite possibly, the nucleus of the comet itself. The first time is about 3.8 billion years ago. Lava poured out from there with several splashes, which were enough for the formation of the ocean of Storms. The "mosquito baldness" in the Sea of ​​Rains is rather indiscreet, but on the contrary, on the back of the lunar surface, Van der Graaf crater bulged out with a shock wave. At this point in time, somewhere in the Sea of ​​Rains, he went into the undeveloped Chinese “Jade Hare” (Yutu lunar rover), which had already completed its mission in the winter of 2013–2014 and now fell into its last dream, occasionally, every few months, modestly snoring to the joy of earthly amateur radio.
Sea of ​​Clarity
It has a shock origin and also with a mason, almost not inferior to the previous one. Of all the lunar dents, these are the two most powerful. In the eastern part of this sea, the legendary Soviet "Lunokhod-2" froze. He unsuccessfully drowned in a system of enclosed craters, after which he was bombarded with moon dust and stuck. But, in spite of everything, he selflessly crawled along this sea for four whole months in 1973. But in the sea of ​​Calm, there are no gravitational anomalies. It has no shock origin. Presumably, its formation is a consequence of the current from the Sea of ​​Clarity. His fame is explained by the fact that in the summer of 1969 the American "Apollo 11" sat there, from which the first man on the moon - Neil Armstrong, who pronounced the catchphrase about a small step and a giant leap.
Sea of ​​Plenty
Further to our attention one more unstressed lunar sea is presented - Abundance. He has a small but rather strange history of origin. It seems that the lowlands have been present there since ancient times, but lava flowed billions of years later. From where - it is not clear. This sea is known for the fact that in 1970 the Soviet "Luna-16" scooped up soil there and delivered it to Earth. So much for "abundance." To the north and south of the Sea of ​​Plenty there are two more seas - dents with very clear gravitational anomalies. To the north is the Sea of ​​Crisis, to the south is the Sea of ​​Nectar.
In general, these names are the fruit of the imagination of intricate Italians. However, it is not clear how to explain the fact that two of our lunar stations crashed and crashed in the Sea of ​​Crisis. Our third station, it should be noted, successfully mined there and returned home. And no one wanted to appear from Earth there. And for the "nectar" they never tried.
The Nectar Sea is one of the very first seas of the Moon. He is prophesied to be seventy million years older than the sea of ​​Rains. And there are only three large lunar seas, they are located in a triangle to the south-west of the center of the lunar disk - these are the seas of Clouds, Humidity and Cognized (emphasis on "a").
The Sea of ​​Clouds and the Cognized are an unstressed formation and enter the general system of the ocean of Storms. The Sea of ​​Humidity is located somewhat on the outskirts and has its very vast mascot. The Sea of ​​Clouds is of interest in that it formed much later in the place where there were previously many craters. When the spreading of lava across all the lowlands began, this area was flooded with ancient craters. But they are still visible to us, the very edges, in the form of numerous circular low hills. Of course, you can see them only in a normal telescope, pseudo-equipment will not show this. In addition, in the Sea of ​​Clouds there is one interesting object - the Direct Wall. It represents a break of the lunar crust in the form of a vertical drop on a flat terrain, which runs almost a straight line of 120 kilometers, its height is about 300 meters.
In September 2013, a meteorite the size of a car unsuccessfully fell into this sea, and exploded picturesquely. The Spanish astronomers who recorded this event claim that this is the largest lunar meteorite of all that was presented to mankind. A lot of all kinds of debris from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter still walks along the Moon. At different times, many observers talked about some exciting and mysterious "sparks" on the surface of the moon - this is just it. The Maskon of the Sea of ​​Humidity is ideal for exploring. Throughout 2012, two NASA probes flew around the Moon, engaged in specific gravimetry (the GRAIL program), thanks to them a more or less clear map of all the gravitational anomalies of the Moon was compiled, as well as photos of the lunar seas. But nothing is known about the origin and history of occurrence, there are no samples from there.
But the name of the last sea from our list - Cognized - appeared in 1964. It is not the Italians who tried, but the International Space Committee. It got the name, since it gave a sufficient number of successful launches for all lunar programs and the delivery of soil samples.
Why don't the lunar seas disappear?
The natural question arises: "Why did the Moon suffer so much? And why is it all so beaten in such a strange mystical way, and the Earth is unharmed and very beautiful?" Has the moon really taken on a part-time space shield? Not at all. The moon is not a shield for our planet. And the space debris flying in both of them is more or less evenly distributed. And, more likely, the Earth is even larger - it is larger. Just the moon does not have the ability to heal wounds. For four and a half billion years of its history, she has preserved the traces of almost all the blows that were inflicted on her from space. There is nothing to heal them - the Moon does not have an atmosphere and there is no water, so that there is erosion and smoothing; no vegetation to cover faults and craters. The only effect on the moon is solar radiation. Thanks to her, the light scars of impact craters darken over the centuries, that's all. The soil of the moon is everywhere - regolith. This is basalt rock grinded into a powder with an inconceivably grueling thresher (Neil Armstrong once stated that the regolith smells of burning dust and shot pistols). And the Earth immediately heals and heals all battle wounds. And compared with the moon, this happens quite quickly. Small pits disappear without a trace, and large impact craters, of course, leave their mark, but strongly swell and overgrow. And there are enough such scars on our planet.