structure and properties
The oxide minerals can be grouped as simple oxides and multiple oxides. Simple oxides are a combination of one metal or semimetal and oxygen, whereas multiple oxides have two nonequivalent metal sites. The oxide structures are usually based on cubic or hexagonal close-packing of oxygen atoms with the octahedral or tetrahedral sites (or both) occupied by metal ions; symmetry is typically...
TITLE: mineral: Oxides and hydroxides
SECTION: Oxides and hydroxides
...oxide, it is discussed below in the section on silicates because its structure more closely resembles that of other silicon-oxygen compounds. Two nonequivalent metal sites (X and Y) characterize multiple oxides, which have the form XY2O4.