A single crystal of the new mineral cavansite, Ca(VO) (Si4010).4H20, from the type locality (Malheur County, Oregon) was dehydrated at 220_+ 10°C in a quartz capillary at ~ 10 -5 atm for 24 h. Intensity data from a four-circle diffractometer were refined anisotropically by least-squares calculations and Fourier techniques to R=0.036, Rw=0.022 in space group Pcmn. The cell dimensions change upon dehydration from a=9.792 (2), b= 13.644 (3), c=9.629 (2) A, V= 1286.5 (3) A3 to a=9.368 [2), b= 12.808 (3), e= 9.550 (2) ,~, V= 1145-8 (3) ,3. The 11% reduction of volume results mainly from removal of water between the silicate layers which lie perpendicular to b. The layers consist of four-and eightmembered rings of SiO4 tetrahedra linked so that the sequence of tetrahedra around the eight-rings is UUUUDDDD (U up, D down). The layers are connected vertically (b direction) by V 4+ cations in a square pyramidal coordination to give an infinite silicate-vanadyl complex. Replacement of each VOs group by two bridging oxygens gives the framework of the zeolite gismondine which has the same layers of four-and eight-membered rings but displays a fully expanded configuration. The Ca cations and the water molecules reside in the channels formed by the eight-rings and between the SiOz layers. At 220°C only one water molecule per Ca ion occurs in the structure. Removal of this last water molecule probably corresponds to the breakdown of the structure observed at ~400~'C. The vanadyl groups were found to have two orientations with the unshared oxygens pointing in opposite directions with a ratio of 10: 1. Therefore there are two ideal structural models of cavansite with an infinite number of disordered intermediates.