[X] My Assistant

[marsbug]

I read this article on electrostatic transport of dust on the lunar surface a few days ago, and I was wondering if it had ever been discussed as an erosive or constructive force? What effect might it have had on lunar geology?

[marsbug]

Aye, thats the answer I was expecting.

Reading this NASA article though has made me wonder if we understand this phenomena as well as we think. I'll quote the part that made me curious:

"To everyone's surprise," says Olhoeft, "LEAM saw a large number of particles every morning, mostly coming from the east or west--rather than above or below--and mostly slower than speeds expected for lunar ejecta."

(my bolding)

I expect this material would be orders of magnitude more tenous than the material coming out of a clean car exhaust, but on the moon, and over geological time, it might still add up to relatively large amounts of material moving. I only persist asking because lunar processes take place over billions of years, enough time perhaps for even the puniest forces to make their presence felt.

dvandorn, you mention that the number of dust particles detected was way down in the noise in the apollo experiments, which seems to contradict the quote I have above. Could you point me towards your source?