Is oxygen really the most abundant element on the surface of the Moon?
Yes, that's correct; it's also true for the Earth's crust. The reason is that &quot;rocks&quot; are typically made up of components containing combinations of silicon or one or more metals (e.g., magnesium, aluminum, iron) and oxygen, such as silica ($\mathrm{SiO}_{2}$); alumina ($\mathrm{Al}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$); lime ($\mathrm{CaO}$); iron oxide ($\mathrm{FeO}$); and magnesium oxide ($\mathrm{MgO}$).
Examples of common lunar minerals formed from these components includes plagioclase feldspars (mixtures of NaAlSi$_{3}$O$_{8}$ and CaAl$_{2}$Si$_{2}$O$_{8}$), pyroxene (typically XYSi$_{2}$O$_{6}$, where X and Y are metals such as calcium, sodium, iron, magnesium, and aluminum), and olivine (made up of Mg$_{2}$SiO$_{4}$ and Fe$_{2}$SiO$_{4}$), along with oxide minerals like ilmenite (FeTiO$_{3}$). (Source)
Since in all these cases you have between one and two oxygen atoms for every non-oxygen atom, you end up with oxygen as the most abundant single element.