According to Wikipedia's article on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, materials / minerals with a higher rating cannot be "visibly" scratched by materials with a lower rating.
It goes on to admit that microscopic dislocations on the harder material do emerge though by trying to scratch it.
I always thought that physical damage mainly depends on the force being exerted to the material, however the explanation on Mohs hardness suggests that force and work are negligible because there is no mention on how exactly the scratching is to be performed, at which velocity, for how long, at which temperature etc.
This implies that sliding and rubbing two materials against one another will basically have the same outcome regardless of whether the sliding happens through manual movement or at cosmic scales like satellite movement.
Also, would a material be considered "harder" on the Mohs scale if we were to scratch it near its melting point so that it sort of "self-repairs" scratches when being scratched due to friction-induced melting ?
Sorry if these questions sound silly to physics experts and mineralogists.