Glass-forming liquids metastable

At low temperatures, the configuration space of glass-forming liquids partitions into exponentially large number of disjoint regions [82,83,156-160]. The Boltzmann weight for such a region is very small. Hence, it is difficult to formulate an order-parameter that labels the metastable states in a quantitative fashion. 

Glasses typically are metastable substances. Like crystalline solids they exhibit macroscopic form stability, but because of their structures and some of their physical properties they must be considered as liquids with a very high viscosity. Their transition to a thermodynamically more stable structure can only be achieved by extensive atomic movements, but atom mobility is severely hindered by cross-linking. 

Ice I is one of at least nine polymorphic forms of ice. Ices II to VII are crystalline modifications of various types, formed at high pressures ice VIII is a low-temperature modification of ice VII. Many of these polymorphs exist metastably at liquid nitrogen temperature and atmospheric pressure, and hence it has been possible to study their structures without undue difficulty. In addition to these crystalline polymorphs, so-called vitreous ice has been found within the low-temperature field of ice I. It is not a polymorph, however, since it is a glass, i.e. a highly supercooled liquid. It is formed when water vapour condenses on surfaces cooled to below — 160°C. 

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