is metastable. However, the conversion rate is very slow and pyroxferroite can exist at low temperatures for periods longer than 3 billion years. Properties The crystal structure of pyroxferroite contains silicon-oxygen chains with a repeat period of seven SiO4 tetrahedra. These chains are separated by polyhedra where a central metal atom is surrounded by 6 or 7 oxygen atoms; there are 7 inequivalent metal polyhedra in the unit cell. The resulted layers are parallel to (110) planes in pyroxferroite, whereas they are parallel to (100) planes in pyroxenes. Chemical composition of pyroxferroite can be decomposed into elementary oxides as follows: FeO (concentration 44–48%), SiO2(45–47%), CaO (4.7–6.1%), MnO (0.6–1.3%), MgO (0.3-1%), TiO2 (0.2–0.5%) and Al2O3 (0.2–1.2%). Whereas magnesium is usually present at about 0.8%, in some samples it had an undetectably low concentration. References Inosilicates Iron(II) minerals Manganese(II) minerals Calcium minerals Pyroxene group Triclinic minerals Minerals in space group 2