Natural γ-CrOOH was first found and studied in rischorrite of the Khibina Massif, in which this mineral is associated with
gonardite, natrolite, phillipsite, and saponite and usually forms microcrystallites in a matrix of amorphous CrOOH hydrogel
or, more rarely, occurs as fine-crystalline, thin acicular, and lumpy aggregates of a green and emerald-green color. X-ray
powder diffraction data indicate that crystalline blocks consist of a mineral with a rhombohedral unit cell,
Cmcm,
a = 3.86 Å,
b = 12.78 Å, and
c = 3.04 Å. Chromium oxyhydroxide from the Khibina Massif is isostructural with γ-CrOOH from the Iksinskoe deposit, but significantly
differs from it in bearing low Al concentrations. The empirical formula of the Khibina γ-CrOOH is (Cr
0.94Mg
0.03Al
0.02Ti
0.01Fe
0.01)
1.01O(OH) ·
nH
2O. The Cr oxyhydroxide and associated zeolites crystallized from low-temperature hydrothermal solutions rich in Na. The most
probable source of Cr for the γ-CrOOH in the Khibina Massif was titanomagnetite in xenoliths of ultrabasic rocks in the rischorrites
affected by postmagmatic alterations.
Original Russian Text © A.K. Shpachenko, N.V. Sorokhtina, N.V. Chukanov, A.N. Gorshkov, A.V. Sivtsov, 2006, published in Geokhimiya,
2006, No. 7, pp. 739–748.