Minecraft:Terrain features

This page lists generated terrain features that are created as part of the Minecraft:world generation.

Overworld

Hill

Hills can contain extreme slopes, cliffs, and Minecraft:caves. On an Minecraft:amplified world, hills are extremely common in all biomes except Minecraft:oceans.

• A Windswept Hills biome.
  A Windswept Hills biome.
• A large overhang occasionally found in Windswept Hills biomes.
  A large overhang occasionally found in Windswept Hills biomes.
• A Windswept Hills overhang with a floating island.
  A Windswept Hills overhang with a floating island.

Mountain

Template:Main Mountains are high elevation terrain that have jagged peaks and higher land.

Cliff

Cliffs are steep vertical slopes that can sometimes generate beside an ocean or a big lake.

• A frozen cliff.
  A frozen cliff.
• File:Taiga Cliff.png
• File:Taiga Cliff 2.png
• File:Cliff 2.png
• A cliff shaped like a crater.
  A cliff shaped like a crater.

Fjord

Template:Redirect Fjords happen when rivers cut through high-medium elevation terrain. Rivers are deeper here than usual.

• A badlands fjord.
  A badlands fjord.
• File:Fjord 2.png
• File:Fjord 1.png

Floating island

Floating islands are structures that float in mid-air. Floating islands are normally just small chunks of floating Minecraft:dirt and Minecraft:stone found near cliffs, but on rare occasions they can be large structures that even have springs and Minecraft:trees on them. Floating islands are most frequently found in Minecraft:windswept hills biomes and their variants, as well as Minecraft:windswept savannas.

• A small floating island.
  A small floating island.
• It is rarer to see large floating islands, especially those with natural features such as trees.
  It is rarer to see large floating islands, especially those with natural features such as trees.
• A cluster of large floating islands.
  A cluster of large floating islands.
• A small but tall floating island with water flowing down from it.
  A small but tall floating island with water flowing down from it.
• A floating island in a forest biome with a few trees growing on it.
  A floating island in a forest biome with a few trees growing on it.
• A tree on a snowy floating island.
  A tree on a snowy floating island.
• A large floating island with trees in the distance
  A large floating island with trees in the distance
• A large floating island with birch trees
  A large floating island with birch trees

Noise cave

Noise caves are generated using a noise. They come in the form of cheese caves, spaghetti caves, and noodle caves. By adjusting noise frequency, hollowness (for cheese caves), and thickness (for spaghetti caves, noodle caves, and noise pillars), noise caves can vary in extremely diverse ways. When generating noise caves, the game firstly generates a random noise field, and "smudges" it using a mathematical trick called Perlin noise. These processes then result in a 3D noise image. Noise pillars also generate inside cave blobs.

Noise caves are a part of the base terrain generation, and so do not intersect generated structures or mineral deposits. They are typically decorated with biome-specific features and decoration such as grass, sand, snow, or trees at higher y-levels, or dripstone pillars or clay deltas at lower y-levels. This is important, as cave noise is dually used to generate important Overworld terrain features such as overhangs or floating islands on the surface.

Surface

Surface layer

The uppermost layers of the terrain are converted to a biome-dependent material: usually grass blocks and dirt, or sand in deserts and beaches. Podzol is found in giant tree taiga, mycelium in mushroom field biomes, and red sand is found in the badlands biome. Sandstone is generated under the sand.

Erosion

Template:Main In older versions of Minecraft, instead of being converted to dirt or sand, the top layer is stripped away, leaving an 'erosion' (aka. 'basin') of bare Minecraft:stone. Commonly, minerals can be found in these, generally Minecraft:coal ore and Minecraft:iron ore. If generated in a Badlands biome, Minecraft:gold ore can also be seen. Erosions appear in all dimensions. Due to a bug, this no longer occurs except in frozen oceans.

• A naturally generated erosion.
  A naturally generated erosion.
• A desert erosion.
  A desert erosion.
• A taiga erosion.
  A taiga erosion.
• A snow-covered tundra erosion.
  A snow-covered tundra erosion.

Strip

Template:Redirect Strips are long stretches of blocks in certain biomes that replace the typical surface materials in these biomes. They can occur in Minecraft:stony shore biomes as strips of Minecraft:gravel, in Minecraft:stony peaks biomes as strips of Minecraft:calcite, in Minecraft:frozen peaks biomes as strips of Minecraft:packed ice, as well as in Minecraft:grove and Minecraft:snowy slopes biomes as strips of Minecraft:powder snow.

• A strip of calcite in a stony peaks biome.
  A strip of calcite in a stony peaks biome.
• A strip of gravel in a stony shore biome.
  A strip of gravel in a stony shore biome.

Hoodoo

Hoodoos are tall spike-like structures found in badlands, consisting of six colors of terracotta. While this structure is found exclusively in Minecraft:eroded badlands, all badlands biomes actually have this structure, but set to false except for eroded badlands and can occasionally pass altitude layer 100.

• Hoodoos in an eroded badlands biome.
  Hoodoos in an eroded badlands biome.
• Hoodoos in a Mesa Bryce biome in an older version of Minecraft.
  Hoodoos in a Mesa Bryce biome in an older version of Minecraft.
• Hoodoo render.
  Hoodoo render.

Iceberg

A large iceberg is a large terrain feature composed of Minecraft:packed ice and Minecraft:snow blocks. There is also a smaller feature known as a cone iceberg.

Large icebergs generate in Minecraft:frozen oceans and Minecraft:deep frozen oceans. They consist of Minecraft:packed ice, and can be topped with snow blocks. Icebergs generate in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from small islands to giant mountain-like icebergs. They can also generate with cave-like holes (these might be related to the carved recesses in cone icebergs) Template:Info needed in them, which sometimes pass through to the other side of the iceberg.

There are often blue ice features attached to them.

• The first screenshot of icebergs.
  The first screenshot of icebergs.
• A group of naturally generated icebergs.
  A group of naturally generated icebergs.
• An aerial view of a frozen ocean with icebergs.
  An aerial view of a frozen ocean with icebergs.
• An iceberg viewed from below.
  An iceberg viewed from below.
• A village close to some icebergs.
  A village close to some icebergs.
• A cave inside an iceberg.
  A cave inside an iceberg.

Carvers

• Minecraft:Carver caves – narrow, winding tunnels found underground in the Overworld and the Nether.
• Minecraft:Canyons – deep fissures that run through the ground.

Others

• Minecraft:Ore vein – a large, branching network of Minecraft:ore and Minecraft:rock.

The Nether

Lava sea

Lava seas are found at and below y-level 31 in the Nether. They make a large portion of the Nether and are extremely common. They can stretch for hundreds of blocks in any direction, and are usually bordered by Minecraft:netherrack, or occasionally Minecraft:soul sand, Minecraft:gravel, and/or Minecraft:magma blocks. Minecraft:Striders can spawn in lava seas.

Unlike with Minecraft:Overworld oceans, lava seas are not handled as a biome.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

• The lava sea
  The lava sea
• A few Minecraft:ghasts swimming in a lava sea
  A few Minecraft:ghasts swimming in a lava sea
• Under the lava sea in Minecraft:Spectator mode
  Under the lava sea in Minecraft:Spectator mode

Nether erosions

Template:Main In the Nether, erosions generate the same size and shape as they do in the Overworld. Unlike their Overworld counterparts, however, Nether erosions replace the ground with Minecraft:netherrack instead of stone. Nether erosions can also expose ores, mainly Minecraft:Nether quartz ore and Minecraft:Nether gold ore.

Notably, erosions generate independent of the y-coordinate; if an erosion generates in an overhang in the Nether, an identical erosion is guaranteed to generate at the exact same x and z coordinates on the ground below such an overhang.

• An erosion in a Minecraft:crimson forest, exposing Nether quartz ore blob.
  An erosion in a Minecraft:crimson forest, exposing Nether quartz ore blob.
• An erosion in a Minecraft:Nether wastes.
  An erosion in a Minecraft:Nether wastes.

The End

Central island

The center of the End is a large, asteroid-like island composed entirely of Minecraft:End stone, floating in the void. It features the Minecraft:exit portal in the center, surrounded by 10 Minecraft:End spikes in a circle. The island is home to the Minecraft:ender dragon, and serves as the arena where it is fought.

At a distance of 1000 blocks away, an endless expanse of additional islands begins, away from the main island. These consist of large islands, about the size of the main island, and smaller ones, which are usually thin and small.

• Central island with many endermen.
  Central island with many endermen.

Outer islands

The outer End islands are found 1000 blocks away from the central island. They vary in size from large islands to smaller "mini islands". Generated structures such as End cities and End ships spawn here, along with Minecraft:chorus trees and erosions. The player can be taken to the End islands through the Minecraft:End gateway.

• Outer islands with chorus trees.
  Outer islands with chorus trees.

Obsidian platform

Template:Main The obsidian platform is a square of obsidian that generates when an entity enters Minecraft:the End.

End erosions

Template:Main Erosions generate in the End as they would in the Overworld and the Nether but they never expose any ores. End erosions may generate on both the central island and outer islands, and Minecraft:chorus trees can occasionally take root in the erosions.

• An erosion generated on an outer End island.
  An erosion generated on an outer End island.

History