Crystal structure and genesis of the hydrated analog of rastsvetaevite

Abstract

The crystal structure of the hydrated analog of the mineral rastsvetaevite (tentatively called “hydrorastsvetaevite”), which was found by A.P. Khomyakov in ultraagpaitic pegmatites at the Rasvumchorr Mountain of the Khibiny alkaline massif (Kola Peninsula), has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The trigonal unit-cell parameters are as follows: a = 14.2812(2) A, c = 60.533(5) A, V = 10691.54(3) A3, sp. gr. R3m. The structure was refined to R = 5.9% in the isotropic and anisotropic approximation of atomic displacement parameters based on 2068 ref lections with |F| > 3σ(F). “Hydrorastsvetaevite” is on the whole analogous to other 24-layer representatives of the eudialyte group (called “megaeudialytes”), but is characterized by a high potassium content and is distinguished from other potassium-rich minerals (rastsvetaevite, davinciite, and andrianovite) by low sodium and alkaline-earth metal content, as well as by a high degree of hydration accompanied by the insertion of H3O groups, which partially or completely replace large cations. The idealized formula of “hydrorastsvetaevite” (Z = 3) is (Na11(H3O)11K6(H2O)1.5Sr)Ca12Fe3Na2MnZr6Si52O144(OH)4.5Cl3.5(H2O)0.5. In alkaline pegmatites, “hydrorastsvetaevite” occurs as a secondary mineral developed from the original rastsvetaevite through decationation and hydration. The characteristic features of the genesis of eudialyte-group minerals containing potassium as a species-forming cation are discussed in terms of the concept of transformational mineral species. an]Mis||Original Russian Text © R.K. Rastsvetaeva, S.M. Aksenov, K.A. Rozenberg, 2015, published in Kristallografiya, 2015, Vol. 60, No. 6, pp. 897–905.