Zeolites of the World

About this book

Zeolites form a group of minerals that have been known mainly as mineral curiosities since the 18th century. In the 1920s detailed structural classification was possible with X-ray diffraction and their unique physical and chemical properties were realized but due to small amounts of zeolites present in volcanic rocks zeolites had little economic interest. However the finding of large quantities of zeolites in altered volcanic tuff deposits that could be mined in open pits and the development of synthetic zeolites in the last 40 years have led to a tremendous amount of research on zeolites that is published in many widely scattered and often obscure professional publications.