Godovikovite is a rare

sulfate mineral The sulfate minerals are a class of minerals that include the sulfate ion () within their structure. The sulfate minerals occur commonly in primary evaporite depositional environments, as gangue minerals in hydrothermal veins and as secondary mine ...

with the

chemical formula In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...

: (NH₄)Al(SO₄)₂. Aluminium can partially be substituted by iron. Hydration of godovikovite gives the

ammonium alum Ammonium aluminium sulfate, also known as ammonium alum or just alum (though there are many different substances also called "alum"), is a white crystalline double sulfate usually encountered as the dodecahydrate, formula (NH4)Al(SO4)2·12H2O. It ...

tschermigite Tschermigite is a mineral form of ammonium alum, formula N H4 Al( S O4)2·12(H2O). It is found in burning coal seams, bituminous shale and fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet fro ...

. The mineral forms

cryptocrystalline Cryptocrystalline is a rock microstructure, rock texture made up of such minute crystals that its crystalline nature is only vaguely revealed even microscopically in thin section by transmitted polarized light. Among the sedimentary rocks, chert a ...

, often porous, masses, usually of white colour. Single crystals are very small hexagonal blades. Typical environment for godovikovite are burning coal sites (mainly dumps). There the mineral acts, together with

millosevichite Millosevichite is a rare sulfate mineral with the chemical formula Al2(SO4)3. Aluminium is often substituted by iron. It forms finely crystalline and often porous masses. It was first described in 1913 for an occurrence in Grotta dell'Allume, Por ...

, as one of the main components of so-called

sulfate crust Sulfate crust is a zone observed in the axial (central) parts of burning coal dumps and related sites. It is a zone built mainly by anhydrous sulfate minerals, such as godovikovite and millosevichite. The outer zone can easily be hydrated giving r ...

.Jambor J. L. and Grew E. S. 1990: New mineral names. American Mineralogist, 76, pp. 240-246 It was first described in 1988 for an occurrence in the Chelyabinsk coal basin,

Chelyabinsk Oblast Chelyabinsk Oblast (russian: Челя́бинская о́бласть, ''Chelyabinskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia in the Ural Mountains region, on the border of Europe and Asia. Its administrative center is the city ...

, Southern

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...

, Russia, and named for Russian mineralogist Aleksandrovich Godovikov (1927–1995).Godovikovite on Mindat.org
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References

Webmineral
Sulfate minerals Trigonal minerals {{sulfate-mineral-stub