View source for Mare Crisium

{{Infobox Lunar mare
|name        = Mare Crisium
|image       = Mare Crisium (LRO).png
|caption     = [[Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter|LRO]] image
|eponym      =
|coordinates = {{coord|17.0|N|59.1|E|globe:moon_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
|diameter    = {{convert|556|km|mi|abbr=on}}<ref name=USGS/>
}}
'''Mare Crisium''' {{IPAc-en|'|k|r|ɪ|s|i|ə|m}} (Latin ''crisium'', the "'''Sea of Crises'''") is a [[lunar mare]] located in the [[Moon]]'s Crisium basin, just northeast of [[Mare Tranquillitatis]].  Mare Crisium is a basin of [[Nectarian]] age.<ref>[https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1348 The geologic history of the Moon].  [[USGS]] Professional Paper 1348. By [[Don Wilhelms|Don E. Wilhelms]], John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask.  U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987.  Table 9-3.</ref> It was formed by the flooding of basaltic lava that filled an ancient asteroid impact.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wrinkle Ridge in Mare Crisium - NASA Science |url=https://science.nasa.gov/resource/wrinkle-ridge-in-mare-crisium/ |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=science.nasa.gov |language=en-US}}</ref> 

==Characteristics==

Mare Crisium is {{convert|556|km|mi|abbr=on}} in diameter,<ref name=USGS>{{gpn|3671}}</ref> and {{convert|176000|km2}} in area. It has a very flat floor, with a ring of [[wrinkle ridge]]s (''dorsa'') toward its outer boundaries.  These are [[Dorsa Tetyaev]], [[Dorsum Oppel]], [[Dorsum Termier]], and [[Dorsa Harker]].  The cape-like feature protruding into the southeast of the mare is [[Promontorium Agarum]]. On the western rim of the mare is the [[Palimpsest (geology)|palimpsest]] [[Yerkes (crater)|Yerkes]], and [[Lick (crater)|Lick]] to the southeast is similar. The [[Impact crater|crater]] [[Picard (crater)|Picard]] is located just to the east of Yerkes, and northwest of Picard are the craters [[Peirce (crater)|Peirce]] and [[Swift (lunar crater)|Swift]]. The [[ray system]] of the crater [[Proclus (crater)|Proclus]] overlie the northwestern mare. [[Mare Anguis]] can be seen northeast of Mare Crisium.<ref>{{cite web |
 title=Mare Crisium | 
 work=lunar.arc.nasa.gov |  url=http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/atlas/mare/mcrisium.htm |  archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020315181909/http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/atlas/mare/mcrisium.htm |  url-status=dead |  archive-date=March 15, 2002 |
 access-date=October 18, 2007 }}</ref>

A [[mass concentration (astronomy)|mass concentration]] (mascon), or gravitational high, was identified in the center of Mare Crisium from Doppler tracking of the five [[Lunar Orbiter program|Lunar Orbiter]] spacecraft in 1968.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.161.3842.680 | title = Mascons: Lunar Mass Concentrations | year = 1968 | author = P. M. Muller, W. L. Sjogren | journal = Science | volume =  161 | issue = 3842  | pages = 680–684 | pmid=17801458| bibcode = 1968Sci...161..680M | s2cid = 40110502 }}</ref>  The mascon was confirmed and mapped at higher resolution with later orbiters such as [[Lunar Prospector]] and [[Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory|GRAIL]].
<gallery heights="240px" mode="packed">
File:Crisium basin topo.jpg|Topographic map
File:Crisium basin GRAIL gravity.jpg|Gravity map based on [[Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory|GRAIL]]
</gallery>

==Names==
Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Crisium was named by [[Giovanni Riccioli]], whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized.<ref>Ewen A. Whitaker, ''Mapping and Naming the Moon'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p.61.</ref>

By the 17th century, Mare Crisium had acquired the name 'Caspian Sea', being labelled as such by [[Thomas Harriot]], [[Pierre Gassendi]] and [[Michael van Langren]]. Ewen A. Whitaker speculates that it received this name because it occupies roughly the same position on the Moon's face as does the [[Caspian Sea]] on Earth, with respect to [[T and O map|maps of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East]].<ref name= "witaker_p7">Ewen A. Whitaker, ''Mapping and Naming the Moon'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p.7.</ref> The English astronomer [[William Gilbert (astronomer)|William Gilbert]]'s map of ''c''.1600 calls it 'Brittania' after [[Great Britain|Britain]].<ref name= "witaker_p7" />

==Observation and exploration==
Mare Crisium is just visible from Earth with the naked eye as a small dark spot on the edge of the Moon's face.

It is the site of the 21 July 1969 crash-landing of the Soviet [[Luna 15]] probe, occurring the same day that two [[Apollo 11]] astronauts walked on the Moon. A soil sample from Mare Crisium was successfully brought to Earth on 22 August 1976 by the Soviet lunar mission [[Luna 24]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150430002507/http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Print=0&Sort=Nation&MCode=Luna_24&Nation=USSR&Display=ReadMore&FIELDNAMES= NASA reference]</ref>

[[Firefly Aerospace]]'s lunar lander carried NASA-sponsored experiments and commercial payloads as a part of [[Commercial Lunar Payload Services]] program to Mare Crisium.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-firefly-aerospace-for-artemis-commercial-moon-delivery-in-2023 |title=NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 |work=[[NASA]] |date=4 February 2021 |access-date=4 February 2021 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204211114/https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-firefly-aerospace-for-artemis-commercial-moon-delivery-in-2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Landing was completed successfully on 2 March 2025 northwest of [[Mons Latreille]] at {{Lunar coords and quad cat|18.56|N|61.81|E}}.<ref name="nssdca">{{cite web |url= https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=BLUEGHOST |title= Blue Ghost Mission 1 (Firefly) |website= nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov |publisher= [[NASA]] |access-date= 2 March 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=1 February 2021 |title=Lunar Lander |url=https://firefly.com/lunar-lander/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205003523/https://firefly.com/lunar-lander/ |archive-date=5 February 2021 |access-date=4 February 2021 |work=[[Firefly Aerospace]]}}</ref> The mission ended on 16 March 2025 after completing all of its objectives, including a test of an electrodynamic dust shield to prevent lunar regolith building up on spacecraft surfaces.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foust |first=Jeff |date=2025-03-17 |title=Firefly Aerospace wraps up successful Blue Ghost 1 mission |url=https://spacenews.com/firefly-aerospace-wraps-up-successful-blue-ghost-1-mission/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=SpaceNews |language=en-US}}</ref>

== In popular culture and literature ==
Mare Crisium is used as the location for [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s 1948 seminal short-story "[[The Sentinel (short story)|The Sentinel]]". In the story, a mysterious structure is found in one of the mountains surrounding the Mare. Clarke describes Mare Crisium as follows:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clarke |first=Arthur C. |title=The Sentinel |publisher=Berkley Books |year=1983 |isbn=0-425-09389-1 |location=New York |pages=119}}</ref>
{{Quote|text=It is the great walled plain, one of the finest on the Moon, known as the Mare Crisium - the Sea of Crises. Three hundred miles in diameter, and almost completely surrounded by a ring of magnificent mountains, it had never been explored until we entered in the late summer of 1996.}}

In ''[[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40k]]'', it is the location of the ''Somnus Citadel'', a base for the Sisters of Silence. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Swallow |first=James |title=The Flight of the Eisenstien  |publisher=Black Library |year=2017 |chapter=15 |series=The Horus Heresy |asin=B076DMFTXZ}}</ref>

Mare Crisium is seen and mentioned throughout the 2022 film ''[[Moonfall (film)|Moonfall]]''. It is where the alien A.I. swarm and the astronauts go into the Moon to reach the [[megastructure]] beneath the surface.

Mare Crisium is the location of Griffin Station in [[Call of Duty: Black Ops]] and [[Call of Duty: Black Ops III]] and serves as the primary setting for the map ''Moon''.

== Views ==
<gallery heights="180px" mode="packed">
File:Location of Mare Crisium.jpg|Location of Mare Crisium, as seen from Earth
File:Mare Crisium AS17-M-0913-0919-0924.jpg|These are three views of northern Mare Crisium on the Moon, taken by the mapping camera of the [[Apollo 17]] mission in 1972, facing north-northeast from an average altitude of 118&nbsp;km on Revolution 27 of the mission.  At the right is the east margin of Mare Crisium, with the north tip of [[Promontorium Agarum]] visible in the foreground, and [[Mare Anguis]] near the central horizon. The crater [[Eimmart (crater)|Eimmart]] is visible in both the right and central photos as a bright patch (near the top in each).  The center photo shows an obvious lack of large craters in the mare indicating a relatively young age of the basalt, and the crater Eimmart C is visible as a ring at the edge of the mare near the top center. The left photo shows the western margin of the mare, with the crater [[Peirce (crater)|Peirce]] (larger) and [[Swift (lunar crater)|Swift]] (smaller) in the mare, and the large crater [[Cleomedes (crater)|Cleomedes]] near the central horizon.  The rays of the crater [[Proclus (crater)|Proclus]] (further to the west, not shown) are prominent in the mare.  These photos were taken within minutes of each other.  The sun elevation drops from 60 degrees at right to 46 degrees at left as the [[Apollo Command/Service Module|Command Module]] ''America'' orbited the Moon.
Image:Mare Crisium AS11-43-6484.jpg|Low-altitude view of southern Mare Crisium from [[Apollo 11]], facing northwest and showing the crater [[Shapley (crater)|Shapley]] near center at the edge of the mare, and the distal wall of the crater [[Greaves (crater)|Greaves]] near the horizon
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Volcanism on the Moon]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mare Crisium}}
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/seandoran/42282124771/ High resolution lunar overflight video] by Seán Doran, based on LRO data, that passes near Mare Crisium (see [https://www.flickr.com/photos/136797589@N04/albums/72157686992929766/with/35498090194/ album] for more); a longer version that starts over the western margin of [[Mare Fecunditatis]] is on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGoD3G5JDc0 YouTube]

{{Lunar maria}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Maria on the Moon|Crisium]]