[6] It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner, the "father of German geology", in 1817, the year of his death, after either John Henry Vivian (1785–1855), a Welsh-Cornish politician, mine owner and mineralogist living in Truro, Cornwall, England, or after Jeffrey G. Vivian, an English mineralogist.

[3] Vivianite group minerals have the general formula A3(XO4)2·8H2O, where A is a divalent metal cation and X is either phosphorus or arsenic, and they are monoclinic.

The vivianite structure has chains of these octahedra and tetrahedra that form sheets perpendicular to the a-crystal axis.

Crystals are transparent to translucent with a vitreous luster, pearly on the cleavage surface, or dull and earthy.

It splits easily, with perfect cleavage perpendicular to the b-crystal axis, due to the sheet-like structure of the mineral.

It is sectile, with a fibrous fracture, and thin laminae parallel to the cleavage plane are flexible.

[4] Vivianite is a secondary mineral found in a number of geologic environments: the oxidation zone of metal ore deposits, in granite pegmatites containing phosphate minerals, in clays and glauconitic sediments, and in recent alluvial deposits replacing organic material such as peat, lignite, bog iron ores and forest soils (all).

A visible light photon knocks a proton out of a water molecule, leaving a hydroxide ion (OH−).

This process starts when visible light falls on the vivianite, and it can occur within a few minutes, drastically changing the color of the mineral.