diff --git a/src/USER-MISC/compute_basal_atom.cpp b/src/USER-MISC/compute_basal_atom.cpp
index 1da43a6baf..4d8627a11f 100644
--- a/src/USER-MISC/compute_basal_atom.cpp
+++ b/src/USER-MISC/compute_basal_atom.cpp
@@ -204,8 +204,11 @@ void ComputeBasalAtom::compute_peratom()
       double bond_angle;
       double norm_j, norm_k;
       chi[0] = chi[1] = chi[2] = chi[3] = chi[4] = chi[5] = chi[6] = chi[7] = 0;
-      double x_ij, y_ij, z_ij, x_ik, y_ik, z_ik,x3[n0],y3[n0],z3[n0],
-        xmean5, ymean5, zmean5, xmean6, ymean6, zmean6, xmean7, ymean7, zmean7;
+      double x_ij, y_ij, z_ij, x_ik, y_ik, z_ik, xmean5, ymean5, zmean5,
+             xmean6, ymean6, zmean6, xmean7, ymean7, zmean7;
+      double *x3 = new double[n0];
+      double *y3 = new double[n0];
+      double *z3 = new double[n0];
       for (j = 0; j < n0; j++) {
         x_ij = x[i][0]-x[nearest_n0[j]][0];
         y_ij = x[i][1]-x[nearest_n0[j]][1];
@@ -411,9 +414,12 @@ void ComputeBasalAtom::compute_peratom()
                   }
               }
           }
-      }
-      //if there are less than two ~180 degree bond angles, the algorithm returns null
-      else BPV[i][0] = BPV[i][1] = BPV[i][2] = 0.0;
+       //if there are less than two ~180 degree bond angles, the algorithm returns null
+      } else BPV[i][0] = BPV[i][1] = BPV[i][2] = 0.0;
+
+      delete[] x3;
+      delete[] y3;
+      delete[] z3;
 
       //normalize BPV:
       double Mag = sqrt(BPV[i][0]*BPV[i][0] +