Specimens Paravauxite is closely related to its basic namesake vauxite . Paravauxite appears to be different from vauxite only in the number of water molecules in the structure. Paravauxite has eight water molecules while vauxite has only six in its formula. It is the presence of these water molecules that alters the structure to the point that paravauxite has perfect cleavage while in sharp contrast, vauxite has no cleavage at all.
Cleavage is one property that is undeniably tied to the structure of a mineral.
The only other strikingly different property is paravauxite's green to colorless color verses vauxite's blue color. Metavauxite is another closely named and closely related mineral to paravauxite. It is a dimorph of paravauxite. A dimorph is a mineral that has the same chemistry, but a different structure. In this case, the structure of paravauxite is triclinic while the structure of metavauxite is monoclinic in symmetry.