Strata

A common zone where every other 4-block layer of the land above sea level is gone, so hills become stacked plates.

Strata is a zone type in the Overworld. The land is ordinary, but in some chunks every other layer of it is cut away.

What it looks like

• Above y 65, the land of a pattern chunk is cut into layers 4 blocks thick. Every other layer is removed.
• A hill becomes a stack of flat plates with a gap of 4 blocks between each. Trees and grass on a removed layer go with it.
• Plates are held by the land under them and by nothing else. A thin hill leaves floating plates.
• Water and lava above y 65 in a pattern chunk are removed too. Ponds and rivers on high ground are gone there.
• Land at or below y 65 is untouched, so flat country near the sea looks normal.
• The pattern is centred on one point in the zone, and it is one of: grid, checker, diagonals, rings, stairs, wave or towers.

Sand in a plate that would hang in the air turns into sandstone in deserts, and red sand into red sandstone in badlands, so nothing falls.

Dangers

• The gaps between plates are 4 blocks high. A fall off a plate is short, but plates stack, so it can be a long way down.
• Mobs spawn on the plates in the dark.

How rare it is

Strata is a common zone, a little rarer than most: about one zone in 59. It exists in the Overworld only, and only in land generated after the 1.7.0 update. The land around spawn never gets it, so go far.

Strata is best seen in hills and mountains. In flat land it looks like a calm zone.

See Chunk errors for every zone type, and Exploring for how finds are logged.