A mass concentration (mascon), or gravitational high, was identified in the center of Mare Humorum from Doppler tracking of the five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1968.

On the north edge of Mare Humorum is the large crater Gassendi, which was considered as a possible landing site for Apollo 17.

[citation needed] To the south are the floor-fractured Vitello crater, the partially flooded Doppelmayer, and the smaller Puiseux.

Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Humorum was named by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized.

[6] Previously, the 17th century astronomer Pierre Gassendi had named it Anticaspia ('opposite to the Caspian', referring to Mare Crisium, which he had named after the Caspian Sea),[7] and Michael van Langren had labelled it the Mare Venetum ("Venetian Sea") in his 1645 map.