During the 1960s, rectified images of Mare Orientale by Gerard Kuiper at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory gave rise to the notion of it being an impact crater.

Outward from here, ejecta extend some 500 km (310 mi) from the foot of the mountains and form a rough surface with hummocks and with features radially aligned towards the center.

[10][11] Global seismic shaking following the impact that created the basin has been credited with the levelling of almost all slopes steeper than 35° in layers of Imbrian age and older on the Moon.

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

[17] Franz's discoveries were not well known,[17] and in the 1976 edition of his book Guide to the Moon, Patrick Moore claims that he and Wilkins discovered and named Mare Orientale in 1946.