Metastable Superheated Ice in Liquid-Water Inclusions under High Negative Pressure.

In some microscopic inclusions (consisting of aqueous liquid and vapor) in minerals, freezing eliminates the vapor phase because of greater volume occupied by the resulting ice. When vapor fails to nucleate again on partial melting, the resulting negative pressure (hydrostatic tension) inside the inclusions permits the existence of ice I crystals under reversible, metastable equilibrium, at temperatures as high as +6.5 degrees C and negative pressures possibly exceeding 1000 bars.