what are the dark spots on the moon

The dark spots on the Moon are known as maria, which is a Latin word meaning "seas". These patches are solidified lava beds from earlier periods of lunar evolution when the Moon was still volcanically active. The dark areas are not actually seas or oceans, as early scientists believed, but rather volcanic basins that were created in the aftermath of ancient impacts billions of years ago. The molten rock created by these impacts triggered volcanism, which created huge pools of molten rock on the surface that then solidified to form a rock called basalt. Basalt is naturally darker in color than anorthosite, which is the primary material on the Moons surface, and covers approximately 16% of the entire lunar surface. The bottoms of certain craters on the Moon are never pointed toward the Sun, with some remaining dark for over two billion years, and these areas are called permanently shadowed regions.