The crystal structure of an aluminum-rich variety of the mineral rondorfite with the composition Ca
16[Mg
2(Si
7Al)(O
31OH)]Cl
4 from the skarns of the Verkhne-Chegemskoe plateau (the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the Northern Caucasus Region, Russia)
was solved in the triclinic space group with the unit-cell parameters
a = 15.100(2) Å,
b = 15.110(2) Å,
c = 15.092(2) Å, α = 90.06(1)°, β = 90.01(1)°, γ = 89.93(1)°, Z = 4, sp. gr.
P1. The structural model consisting of 248 independent atoms was determined by the phase-correction method and refined to
R = 3.8% with anisotropic displacement parameters based on all 7156 independent reflections with 7156
F > 3σ(
F). The crystal structure is based on pentamers consisting of four Si tetrahedra linked by the central Mg tetrahedron. The
structure can formally be refined in the cubic space group (
a = 15.105 Å, sp. gr.
Fd
$
\overline 3
$
\overline 3
, seven independent positions) with anisotropic displacement parameters to
R = 2.74% based on 579 reflections with
F > 3σ(
F) without accounting for more than 1000 observed reflections, which are inconsistent with the cubic symmetry of the crystal
structure.