Chaidamuite is a sulfate mineral that was first found in Xitieshan mine south of Mt. Qilianshan in the Chaidamu basin, Qinghai (Chinghai) Province, China. It is named from locality and is a hydrated sulfate containing a hydroxyl and four dihydrogen monoxide molecules. It a secondary mineral possibly formed due to mining process.

Structure

The crystal structure has been determined by the Patterson method and Fourier syntheses and refined by the full-matrix least-squares method to an R factor of 0.032, using 2833 independent reflections. In the structure, a zigzag chain consists of [Fe(1)O₅(OH)] and [Fe(2)O₅(OH)] octahedra sharing the OH corners, and an octahedral-tetrahedral chain running parallel to the b axis consists of the zigzag chain of Fe octahedra and (SO₄) tetrahedra sharing four pairs of octahedral corners on either side of the zigzag chains. These chains are cross-linked by the isolated [Zn(1)O₂(H₂O)₄] and [Zn(2)O₂(H₂O)₄] octahedra into corrugated sheets parallel to the (100) plane. Adjacent sheets are hydrogen bonded through water molecules (Li, et al 1990).