A forerunner of the ATLAS was first published in 1970(1). This early survey comprised 27 zeolite structures known at the time. Then the "Atlas of Zeolite Structure Types" by W.M. Meier and D.H. Olson, with 38 entries, was published by the Structure Commission of the IZA in 1978. This was followed by the much expanded 2nd edition of the ATLAS in 1988 comprising 64 entries, the updated 3rd edition in 1992 with 85 entries, and the fully revised 4th edition in 1996 with 98 entries. This 5th edition is again an updated version of the previous compilation, and the number of entries has risen significantly to 133.

This book is intended to be a complete and clear introduction to the field of crystallography for undergraduate and graduate students and lecturers in physics, chemistry, biology, materials and earth sciences, or engineering. It includes an extensive discussion of the 14 Bravais lattices and the reciprocal to them, basic concepts of point group symmetry, the crystal structure of elements and binary compounds, and much more. Besides that, the reader can find up-to-date values for the lattice constants of most elements and about 650 binary compounds (half of them containing rare earth metals). The entire notation in this book is consistent with the International Tables for Crystallography. <...>

The name bentonite was suggested in 1898 by Knight for a peculiar claylike material with soapy properties from its occurrence in the Fort Benton unit of Cretaceous age formations in Wyoming (U.S.A.). Hewitt (1917) and Wherry (1917) first established that this particular clay is an alteration product of volcanic ash, although an earlier observation by Condra (1908) suggested this origin for a similar clay from northern Nebraska. Ross and Shannon (1926) presented the following definition which has been widely quoted: