...until it is exposed to earth's atmosphere & moisture (humidity).
The gist of my statement is that easily Si reacts with O^2 to form oxides; that it is NOT 'non-reactive' as a certain ignorant keyboard jocky, who never studied any kind of technical subject beyond 6th grade general science, asserted.
Take a look at William Tell's #62 & #67.
IOW, it was a criticism of a journalist who does not understand what he was seeing & hearing, then presuming to educate his readers down to his own level of ignorance.
Sorry, but you’re going to have to explain how oxygen can get into a pure silicon crystalline matrix. It might stick to the outermost Silicon atoms (I’m unsure about that), but that would not be a factor in diameter or mass.