Wavellite is an
aluminium basic
phosphate mineral with formula
Al3(
P O4)
2(O
H,
F)
3·5
H2O. Distinct crystals are rare, and it normally occurs as translucent green radial or spherical clusters.
Discovery and occurrence

Wavellite was first described in 1805 for an occurrence at High Down, Filleigh,
Devon, England and named by William Babington in 1805 in honor of Dr. William Wavell (1750–1829),
[ a Devon-based physician, botanist, historian, and naturalist, who brought the mineral to the attention of fellow mineralogists.][Curtis, Samuel and Hooker, William Jackson (1827). Memoirs of the Life and Writing of the Late Mr. William Curtis, Curtis's Botanical Magazine; or Flower Garden Displayed, v. 1 (new series), v-xxxii.]
It occurs in association with crandallite and variscite in fractures in aluminous metamorphic rock, in hydrothermal regions and in phosphate rock deposits.[ It is found in a wide variety of locations notably in the Mount Ida, Arkansas area in the Ouachita Mountains.
It is sometimes used as a gemstone.][Gemstones: Properties, identification and use by Arthur Thomas, p. 132.]
See also
* List of minerals
* Apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of OH−, F− and Cl− ions, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common e ...
, fluoro-phosphate of calcium
* Pyromorphite, chloro-phosphate of lead
* Turquoise, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium
References
External links
*
Aluminium minerals
Phosphate minerals
Halide minerals
Orthorhombic minerals
Minerals in space group 62
Luminescent minerals
Gemstones
{{Phosphate-mineral-stub