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Quantification of the deviations from closest sphere packings

Institut für Mineralogie, Petrologie und Kristallographie der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Straße, D-35032 Marburg, Germany

^* E-mail: heidrun.sowa{at}t-online.de

In order to quantify the deviation of the anion arrangement in a crystal structure from a closest sphere packing two parameters are introduced: d_rel is the relative difference between the longest and the shortest distance to neighbouring atoms within a distorted closest-packed arrangement and s is the standard deviation of the normalized distances to all neighbouring atoms. The applicability of these parameters is compared with that of the distortion parameter U_cp introduced by Thompson & Downs (2001). Deviations from ideal sphere packings in pyroxenes, staurolite, kyanite, and olivine- and spinel-type structures are considered.

Key-words: closest sphere packings, standard deviation, distortion parameter.