What keeps lunar dust from fusing together if there’s no atmosphere to form an oxidisation layer?

Question

I learnt how cold welding happens in space, but how do dust particles on the moon not fuse together at the atomic level in a similar way if there’s no oxidisation layer to keep them separated? Is there some other stand-in layer keeping them apart?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Lunar dust is very jagged and sharp, which means that when two grains are in contact, the surface of contact is typically very small; small enough that any vacuum welding at that point of contact is very fragile compared to the grains themselves.