Glass samples of Ge02 and Si02 were subjected to pressures in excess of 250 kbar in a diamond anvil press and heated to temperatures over 1000¿C by YAG laser. X ray diffraction study of the quenched and unloaded samples yeilded powder patterns consisting of the rutile phase plus a new modification which can be indexed as being hexagonal. The lattice parameters of the new phase at room temperature and atmospheric pressure are a0=2.729¿0.002 and c0=4.312¿0.004 ¿ for GeO2 and a0=2.561¿0.004 and c0=4.112+0.008 ¿ for SiO2. Calculated intensities based on hexagonally close-packed oxygens with cations randomly filling one half of the octahedral sites are in agreement with the observed intensities. This structure (Fe2N) can best be visualized as the niccolite structure with half the cations randomly removed.