Problem: What is the likelihood of finding oneself in a dangerous situation after mining directly

downwards in Minecraft?

Research:

Hypothesis: I expect that the likelihood of falling into a cave, let alone one with monsters inside it, will
not be low, and that the deeper I dig, the higher the chances are of falling into lava.

Steps:

1. Create a new world in the Creative gamemode, in the Normal difficulty. This way, I can dig with
incredible speeds and not have to worry about taking damage in any way, either.
2. Select 50 random places throughout the world and dig downwards in a straight line.
3. While doing so, note if the player will die immediately or not, why the player will or will not, if the
player falls into a cave, ravine, or underground structure, or if the player encountered a mineral
vein (granite, diorite, andesite, infested stone, coal, iron, gold, diamonds, emeralds, redstone, lapis)
on their way.

Results:

Test Does the If the Does the player Are there any Notes
# player player encounter any mineral veins?
die? dies, why? structures?
1 No Cave Granite The player nearly fell into lava,
they landed just next to it.

2 No Diorite, granite
3 No Andesite, coal
4 Yes Lava Cave, which spills Andesite, diorite, Many monsters, such as
into a ravine with a coal, lapis, redstone zombies, zombie villagers, and
mineshaft structure a creeper were in the ravine.
5 No Cave Granite, andesite The rattle of a skeleton was
heard while digging,
suggesting that there was a
cave nearby.
6 No Infested stone, The coal was just above the
diorite, coal, iron bedrock layer.
7 No Cave Diorite, granite,
andesite, coal
8 Yes Zombies Multiple caves Iron, andesite
(possibly) and
zombie
villagers
9 No Andesite

10 Yes Lava Coal

11 No Granite, iron

12 No Intersection Andesite This was in a giant tree taiga

between 8 caves biome – my favorite.
13 Yes Creeper Cave Granite, gold
explosion,
zombie
attack
14 No Granite, diorite, Aboveground, there was a
andesite, lapis taiga village.
15 No Coal, diorite,
granite, redstone
16 No Drowning: Iron, diorite, Despite the cave being filled
(possibly this cave granite, andesite with water, the aboveground
yes) was mostly biome was a jungle
filled with
water.
17 No Iron, coal, granite

18 Yes Lava Diorite The lava is just above the

bedrock layer.
19 Yes Lava Diorite, andesite Unlike the previous example,
there was actually quite a bit
of distance between the lava
and bedrock.
20 No Iron, granite,
andesite, coal,
diorite
21 No Mineshaft Skeleton and spider
(possibly)
22 No Cave Andesite, coal,
granite
23 No Granite, coal, Water
andesite
24 No Granite, andesite,
iron
25 No Cave Granite 2 zombies
(possibly)
26 No Granite, andesite,
coal
27 No Granite, andesite, Nearby, there was a dungeon
coal with a zombie spawner.
28 No Andesite

29 No Andesite, iron,
 granite, gold
30 No Iron, granite,
andesite
31 No 2 caves Andesite

32 No Gold, granite

33 No Diorite, andesite

34 No Iron, diorite, granite

35 No Iron, diorite, granite

36 No Cave, then Diorite, andesite,

mineshaft granite
37 No Diorite

38 No 2 caves Andesite, granite,

diorite
39 No Cave Andesite, granite

40 No Andesite, diorite

41 No Mineshaft Coal Zombie

42 No Andesite, iron

43 No Cave Diorite, andesite Water

44 No Granite, iron

45 No Cave, mineshaft,
cave
46 No Mineshaft Granite, diorite

47 No Cave Diamonds, andesite

48 No Andesite, granite

49 No Diorite, andesite

50 No Lapis

Analysis:
Out of the 50 times I dug, I would have died only 6 times, meaning that the chance of death is 12%.
The chance of encountering at least 1 cave was 30%, while the chance of finding an abandoned
mineshaft structure was 10%. As for mineral veins, the chance of finding granite is 52%, diorite is
34%, the chance of finding andesite was a whopping 62%, coal is 24%, iron is also 24%, gold is 4%,
redstone is 4%, lapis is 6%, and diamonds is 2%. I could’ve found emerald ore, but I would have to
dig in the mountain biome to find it, which I only did twice. So, based on these results, my
hypothesis was correct: caves were rather common, and when I fell into lava, the lava was very
deep underground.