BAY OF LOVE

The Bay of Love Location Description

Sinus Amoris, Latin for the Bay of Love, is a small lunar bay located on the northeast end of Mare Tranquillitatis, with the Montes Taurus to the North, named after the Taurus Mountain range in Turkey, from which Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow into Syria and Iraq (the birthplace of Adam and Eve). There are numerous craters located within and around the Bay of Love; Craters Maraldi, Römer, Carmichael, Hill, Brewster and Franck. Like lunar Mare, from the Latin word Maria which means Seas, lunar Bays were created by ancient lava flows and derived their names because they resembled oceanic bays here on Earth. These types of formations appear as dark areas on the Lunar surface when viewed from Earth and ancient historians believed these darker areas of the Moon were actually liquid oceans, bays and lakes, hence the Latin names which reference these features as bodies of water. The volcanic activity that flooded this Bay with lava, as well as the Lunar Sea in Mare Tranquillitatis to its southwest, occurred between 3.2 to 3.8 billion years ago when the Moon was still volcanically active.

Mare Tranquillitatis, the “Sea of Tranquility”, located southwest of the Bay of Love, is one of the most famous locations on the Moon. The Sea of Tranquility was the site of the first lunar landing (Apollo 11). This landing occurred July 20, 1969, and marked a technological turning point for the United States. Two Apollo 11 Astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon, and 2 hours and 31 minutes actually walking on the Lunar surface. In addition, the Sea of Tranquility was also the area chosen for the landing of the probe Surveyor 5 and both Apollo 16 and 17 lunar missions.