Geology of Minecraft: Iron Ore, Facts and Fiction

A deep dive into iron ore. Where it spawns and its properties as well as where it comes from in real life.
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Australian stromatolite By Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
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[@CraftyMasterman]

Those block display effects got my mind blown what?????

[@ModerationLabs]

Ikr, they keep getting cooler and cooler every video

[@BryanLu0]

He made a video called "Block and block_display animations" that explains how he makes these. Also the video "What's the difference between minerals and rocks?" has a very cool animation

[@tylabyla]

been waiting for gneiss to get noticed!! his skills are unmatched

[@Akira-Aerins]

First time?

[@Marcel-yu2fw]

I'm surprised this works so fluently. There have to be millions of display entities there, how does it not lagg like hell? Or does he just have a much better graphics card than me?

[@haiperbus]

I'd say we're in the silicon age, not because of microchips, but because our world is made of concrete and glass, which is mostly composed of silicon dioxide

[@gneissname]

yeah for sure, I was thinking of saying that too but the insane amount of iron we use is just ridiculous.

[@kennyholmes5196]

So, we're in the Quartz Age, then?

[@bingusbongus9807]

this is a very cool observation i haven't seen before!

[@mgord9518]

We're in the information age. Our society is set apart by the unprecedented flow of information, not our use of concrete. When people look back, our time will be remembered as the start of complete reliance on computers and globalization.

[@BrunoBarcelosAlves]

What if ages are contained within other ages instead of ending when others start? The silicon age is contained in the iron age.

[@citrus_punk_]

STROMATOLLITES MENTIONED!!!! ALL MY HOMIES LOVE MICROPALEONTOLOGY

[@DJ_Pillow]

Hell yeah!! I was so excited I love learning about how microbes shaped our world :D

[@goobea]

I want a pet stromatolite one day, that would be so awesome sauce. Having a small, murky, sediment filled wave pool in my house full of weird rocks... the dream

[@ctrlaltmilk]

Random question - have you ever considered doing a video on the geology of TerraFirmaCraft? It's a mod that overhauls a lot of vanilla world generation, and includes a bunch of new types of rock, ore, and geological formations I think you'd be interested in.

[@Blue-edbcfe]

i was just thinking the same thing, specifically when gneiss was talking about the different types of iron ore. been sinking dozens of hours into that mod lately and while it's certainly not a 1-1 with real life, there's most certainly more thought put into the believably of the world generation that i absolutely adore

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

yes, I think he has mentioned and considered it

[@gneissname]

yes, this and vintage story are ones that i need to try.

[@deadmanwillyimbothdeadandalive]

@@gneissname god i would love a video like that. those mod packs hold a deep place in my heart

[@somdudewillson]

Interestingly, in the modding world steel is 'traditionally' depicted as darker iron. Presumably because of some combination of it being made by adding something black to it, the process of smelting often making items darker, and the fact that there's a lot more room darker than iron in the color space than there is lighter.

[@gneissname]

huh, that's interesting.

[@xymaryai8283]

the Create mod does something different, calling it "Industrial Iron" perhaps invoking wrought iron or mild steel

[@manitoba-op4jx]

also, any lighter and it just looks like silver. silver is usually depicted as a lighter and/or bluer iron ingot.

[@indig0283]

@@manitoba-op4jx I think its also intresting to look at cobalt and plumbum materials in mods, which are blue and purple usually

[@nerd_nato564]

Even the extra realistic TerraFirmaCraft falls to that trap, but that's mainly due to cast iron using the vanilla iron ingot for compatibility. Wrought iron is a dark, sorta brown color, and steel is dark and grey. Except for black, red, and blue steel, which are colored exactly as the name implies.

[@CodexAdrian]

Even as a mod developer im incredibly impressed by the visual effects here! I aspire to make content as interesting as yours, even though i have no interest in geology i feel like i could watch this for hours.

[@Thund3rDrag0n12]

I love learning about real life rocks through the medium of virtual rocks

[@dragonfluf]

Huh, I never knew how old iron is until now. Kinda funny we use the phrase "older than dirt" when iron is literally older than dirt.

[@That_One_Kobold]

dirt is... very young really on that scale.

[@iout]

Well, if you're talking about elemental iron, then it's literally as old as the stars. It's the last stage in the sequence of fusion that occurs within them before they burn out and die. Dirt on the other hand is a bunch of different compounds, many of which are organic.

[@haiperbus]

There are actually super rare formations of pure mettalic non-ore iron, metorites! Ancient people's actually managed to cold forge some of them into tools long before we could ever truly forge it.

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

ahaha gottem

[@boatymcboatface8207]

13:51 ah yes the old fell into my car trick, second only to the how did this rock get stuck in my shoe method of sampling

[@JediSteve-J3-]

When the mountain started raising up I was so impressed. You're videos are always so good!

[@ModerationLabs]

Hey I know you

[@siobibblecoms]

@@ModerationLabs I have no Idea who you are

[@uninable]

i know it's not a hard thing to do with automation and such, but it's still a very cool yet simple effect

[@ENDESGA]

what an absolute treat to see pop up in my subscriptions right as I sat down with my lunch~

[@Franklin_Johanessan]

Oooh, same. What are you having for lunch?

[@NothingEverFeelsRight]

For me it’s almost midnight yall enjoy ur food😂😂

[@PWNDON]

@@NothingEverFeelsRight i saw this pop up at night while i was eating apple slices

[@juandeeg6928]

@@PWNDON holy crap im eating an apple right now too

[@NothingEverFeelsRight]

@@juandeeg6928 what the fuck I just finished one myself

[@VPCh.]

As a geologist and Minecraft fan, I've always felt that the veins/deposits should have been handled differently. -Iron deposits could have been added in banded iron formations as wide thin flat deposits made of layers of alternating iron ore and chert (added as a rock harder to mine than normal stone). They could be limited to spawning in a few biomes to encourage exploration. -Gold could be found in smaller veins, made from quartz and gilded quartz (dropping gold nuggets, and a nice color contrast to gilded blackstone). -Copper deposits should be VMS style, scattered through a funnel shaped deposit, maybe with a few gilded quartz veins and higher rates of other ores spawning around the outside of it. -Coal deposits could be large shallow layers that spawn under swamps. -Kimberlite pipes would also be a nice addition. Large conical structures of deepslate with a tuff ring at at the surface, extending all the way from the surface to the diamond level. The entire structure would have the same ore spawning mechanics as if it was all at y=-63. This means it isn't overpowered for late game, but finding one could give you a chance to find early diamonds at surface level. The game that did it best was Eco. Their deposits were incredible, very accurate to real life, so mines actually tended to resemble real life mines.

[@SuperNova-so2cj]

you might be interested in the game vintage story, its a minecraft type game with a bit more thought put into the ways that veins generate in accordance to the types and layers of stone that surround them

[@SissypheanCatboy]

This video was great, but it also reminded me of how, in highschool, I wanted to own an ingot of all of the cheap metals/metalloids (iron, silicon, tin, etc). I didn't have any real reason, I just thought it'd be a cool conversation piece to have them sitting around.

[@gneissname]

I have been thinking of doing one of those periodic table tables and see how many elements i can collect.

[@jonasgajdosikas1125]

@@gneissname btw in 2002 an ig nobel prize was awarded to a Wolfram Research member for making an actual table out of periodic table elements

[@trixylover]

Loved the geological time scale! If you ever want to expand on it I would suggest checking out the Prehistoric Nature mod. It is curruntly only for 1.12.2, and it has hundreds of scientifically accurate biomes, blocks, plants and mobs that can be found in custom dimensions

[@Deepseeanenemy]

You've very quickly became one of my favourite minecraft content creators and do and exceptional job of presenting geology in an interesting and engaging manner. Thank you.

[@gneissname]

Thanks!

[@ediacaraa]

Just finished my first year of University, and I'm pursuing Geology! Partially because of your videos, and how you transform concepts to become digestible and exciting. I wanted to let you know this is such an excellent tool for education and I can tell you first-hand how helpful some of your videos were whilst I was in a Mineral/Rock ID quiz. You might know/have been to my University too! Just a guess, since you've mentioned the Flinders Ranges in a previous video. Much love and appreciation all the way from Australia xxx

[@gneissname]

Great to hear,. I've walked through the geology department of university of Adelaide. I'll be working in the Flinders next summer again too.

[@_HyperiusTI_]

Returning viewer from when you first blew up... It warms my heart knowing youre almost at 100k already. I didn't think your production could get this crazy hahaha, love it!

[@_HyperiusTI_]

Update I finished the video and I want a cube

[@greenberrygk]

11:32 this makes so much sense, that’s why minecraft iron ore and raw iron is pinkish. It’s not pure iron yet

[@ModerationLabs]

26:43 You could have just asked me to turn my pfp back to normal for that NOOO 😭 The one actual cameo I get and I’m just a slab of butter

[@siobibblecoms]

put da butter on the labs. butter labs.

[@doot4246]

babe wake up, a new Gneiss Name video just dropped.

[@sage5296]

(2:38) I would guess the peak of 232 with the equal taper on both sides is the same as how 2d6 peaks at 7 with the equal taper. It's very likely the sum of two random() calls and an offset, which gives a more complex distribution for a still fairly minimal cost (important when you consider how many times this routine is run during worldgen)

[@1personOnTheInternet]

This channel deserves more subs

[@moth8224]

The way you switch from game footage to cutting chunks of rock and steel is so cool

[@WilliamLund-o1d]

As a biology guy who loves natural history, it was really interesting hearing a geologist talk about the Great Oxidation Event. And the geologic timescale looks so cool! I'll definitely watch the video about it when it comes out.

[@Marcel-yu2fw]

26:19 ... or the different gold blocks: 3 different ores, 1 raw gold and the gold block. That'll be expensive.

[@jdlenl]

i actually have a tiny sample of hadean zircon rocks from australia, it's pretty wild having a little slide full of rocks from the beginning of earth

[@user-xsn5ozskwg]

I love the way you teach these things. Geology has never been a field I've seen as accessible, but the way you break down the history and science behind it all has helped me develop a great beginner's appreciation in how amazing minerals are.

[@MadGamer1337]

25:45 looks like the All Spark from Transformers. And that's a compliment. I love this. Also, when you mentioned "I wanna do all ore blocks" I paused instantly and asked myself "how you gonna find so much diamond to make a diamond block? it's already rare as is, especially if you wanna go for 100% pure diamond" only to unpause and be met with "that's a future Gneiss problem". I love this entire series of "Geologist talks Minecraft" (which is what I named it in my head).

[@isoul22]

you would really enjoy the world generation in the TerraFirmaCraft mod, the amount of detail and care that's put into it to making resemble earth's systems is really something, plus they have entire gneiss layers for you to enjoy :D

[@steggieweggie]

Nice another super niche video from gneiss.

[@rafaelcruzs2]

Hey, would you mind reviewing geology in other games, like vintage story? It seems a lot more accurate than Minecraft in all things earth sciences. Btw, your videos rock! Edit: alternatively, terrafirmacraft is a Minecraft mod on par with the mentioned game, plus being more familiar to Minecraft players

[@DuyNguyen-ks8dc]

The block moving animation is just... STUNNING!!!

[@koleoidea]

These videos are so beautiful! i love those little cubes; if you can find a square glass pot you could make a grass block as a cute little desk plant to match!

[@dialog_box]

Ok the whole timeline and origin of iron explanation was absolutely amazing! I cannot wait to see this world used more in future videos!

[@gneissname]

Thanks, I'm excited! I have a lot of ideas for it

[@OrchidAlloy]

Your videos are always incredibly high quality

[@furuthebat]

Love your Geology videos, the block presentation in minecraft is just crazy

[@NithinJune]

3:15 Violin Chart 🤩🤩🤩

[@uninable]

great video, not just for the information, but all the datapack block display animations and how you showcase it too

[@diggymgee]

Quite honestly, the only minecraft youtube I keep tabs on and follow. Everything you do is beyond the scope of minecraft.

[@slagskimmermike]

Mind blown. Little Critters are the reason I have access to the materials I work every day. Thanks for another great video and for the phenomenal world downloads you have given us

[@heitorgoku]

I think you'd really like playing a modpack like TerraFirmaGreg, which aims to be as "realistic" as possible in Minecraft, it adds physics to the blocks, cave-ins if you don't mine correctly/add supports, certain types of ores only spawn in certain type of rocks and etc, I find it to be really interesting to see what the developers come up with to make it more real-esque, there are some videos that explain more about the modpack if you are interested.

[@1e1001]

or the other variations like the original TerraFirmaCraft or Auto-TerraFirmaCraft (TFC + Create mod)

[@feryth]

Greg vein shapes still kinda needs some work to be realistic though. They got three shapes now: blob, layers, noodle. Now if those also conform to rock layers... that'd be perfect

[@leonidmeleshin4227]

TerraFirmaGneiss 😮

[@druidofpies]

Your videos are insanely well made; from the animations and visual representations, to the history and information. I’m extremely captivated about these subjects that I found kinda boring in school, your way of showing us this stuff is incredible and very entertaining. Keep it up, I wish I had a rock pun but I haven’t the geology knowledge to come up with one. Uh your videos rock haha

[@VulpineSlayer]

I sometimes forget I’m watching Minecraft, your teaching style is just perfect for me.

[@kennyholmes5196]

Gold will *also* be a future-gneiss problem.

[@gneissname]

time to start a go fund me i guess

[@ModerationLabs]

@@gneissname since you did steel instead of iron for the iron block you can probably just do pyrite instead of gold

[@gneissname]

@ close enough

[@Jonas_Brot]

Your stuff is so criminally underrated, holy hell

[@AngieTheCatGD]

I just went to see some stromatolites yesterday. Great video, as always!

[@TheMrFrukt]

Wonderful educational video, Gneiss! I would like to see more of that in the future!

[@DENLERCHANNEL]

Love your videos! And love geology! Thanks for all that hard work about interactive displays. ) Right now i'm building modpack with semi-real geology. Right now it have about 40 variations of veins. And all small blobs of ore are deleted from the game, it's only veins with different amount of ore. Also, there are collisions of or deposits, only for interactive. Pretty rare event, that enriches one or two collided deposits. or gen third, unique resource. And it's also because of your videos. )

[@slickittenounounoun]

Also want to comment on the scope of the job of recreating earths timeline 1:1000000. Brilliant idea, absolutely amazing.

[@jfrederino]

best thing to watch instead of studying for my QM finals

[@savdebunnies]

These videos are so good. Love the irl blocks!

[@AsiccAP]

I bestow upon you one of the highest awards I can give: I'm eating lunch while watching your video Gneiss work!

[@gneissname]

Truly an honor.

[@Wertyhappy27]

​@gneissname eating lunch is the time of very intense thinking, these videos are such a fun way to check out geology a good game, cool graphics, on a topic that just... rocks

[@elysio488]

Love the content, plus the efforts in the making are awesome, keep up the good work !

[@jake_bytheocean]

another great video gneiss!

[@K..C]

Amazing videos and effects as always!

[@quakxy_dukx]

Geology was always the most uninteresting of the sciences in school but you’re videos are incredibly interesting

[@Death_Tr00per58]

Just finished a college essay that literally had my legs buckling from stress a couple of minutes ago. A half hour long gneiss video is exactly what the doctor ordered

[@inferno156]

this is so in-depth, how does this have only 3.5k views??? Here before this blows up...

[@jamono]

this video is amazing. thank you so much for all the hard work on making this!!!!! holyyy

[@nyuh]

i cant to see more of that geological timeline world. its gorgeous. incredible video as always. this vid made me realize just how THIN AND FUZZY the boundary is between dead things and living things. like oh my goddddddddd. rocks make life and life makes rocks. i love science

[@demsendk7105]

hey gneiss i think you should check out a game called vintage story i really think you will like it it like minecraft but have some more realistic survival feature and this includes ores spawning in veins and stuff like that

[@imjakedeason]

i'm so amazed by your talent using minecraft that I haven't heard anything you said so I had to watch it again hahaha

[@cadberry1461]

i love you Gneiss such captivating well crafted videos never stop

[@OspreyMantis]

I like to watch this guy to make myself feel smart even tough im still watching minecraft stuff

[@NitFlickwick]

I’d love a mod that performed world gen the way you mention. It would be fun to have some variation like that.

[@xymaryai8283]

i've wanted to make a realistic train world, where i'd have to make quarries and mines a significant distance from each other (although definitely not 1:1, more like Satisfactory's scale) and bring them on big trains together to make the materials i need, i haven't found an ore generation mod that adequately balances the realism and gameplay at that scale, though i have also been avoiding it because i already have a world with vanilla generation

[@azazeltf2]

God that diorama was insane. Hearing numbers really is different from just watching the scale go on and on

[@slickittenounounoun]

What a masterclass. I am both in awe and terrified

[@anitaweasel]

The visualization is so cool

[@viloxy]

As always, amazing video! Love the VFX work, especially considering everything is done on the engine However, I have a little suggestion: maybe only record at 30 fps? The animations are obviously performance-hungry and unstable frame pacing is actually kind of straining on the eyes, so locked frame rate would reduce that

[@gneissname]

Thanks

[@goobea]

I miss doing my Earth and Environmental Science class in high school now that I've graduated, so this is really scratching that itch :3 thank you Mr Name

[@mustardTwisted]

Excellent as always, thank you for your hard work and fun style of education.

[@amberisvibin]

those cubes at the end are fascinating, and I want one

[@Incred_Canemian]

Making a real life block of diamond seems like it would be a hard problem.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

would mostly just mean constructing a massive pressure furnace and waiting a long time for crystallization

[@oscar_gekko]

Super interesting. Awesome work ! 👏

[@ZTRCTGuy]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the command block magic and visual effects going on here? like when the entire mountain raises out of the ground. I mean I'm still baffled by it.

[@DJ_Pillow]

Thank you for these lovely videos I love learning about minerals 4ever !

[@lucyprime3923]

It's funny that you mention adding steel as a separate form/function to iron, because a popular beta 1.7.3 mod (Better than Adventure!) adds that as a gameplay mechanic

[@velocity_raptor]

your videos make me wanna play terrafirmacraft again XD

[@Vixeneye1]

God, these videos are just so good. My wife and I always make a date night out of them.

[@rafaelcruzs2]

Who would’ve guessed Minecraft was so good to teach geology

[@nrczg]

Irl pillager outpost spotted at 13:16 (Also super intesting content tnx)

[@Milky_Nguyen]

Right in time for my lunch too, just had 2 classes of geology and yet here we are 😅

[@HafStac]

What a treat to watch this! Such nostalgia from teaching this stuff, but to see it in my favourite game?!?! Want as much of this as I can get 😂😂😂

[@Caterpie56]

Alexis Dahl has a fun video just on banded iron formations if people want more stuff to watch about that type of iron ore

[@shacolin6546]

The banded iron formations could be a feature under oceans. Now, oceans are very common so if the BIFs are too common to go along with it, that might be a little overpowered, so perhaps make them on the rarer side to balance it. Perhaps attaching them to ocean monuments is an idea. Another iron formation that could be implemented is bog iron. Stale waters tend to cause reduction reactions (I don't know if that's the word you use in english, I mean the opposite of oxydation) and at the bottom of stale waters in swamps it was relatively common for small chunks of iron to form. That said, sprinkling a few raw iron ores with the clay at the bottom of swamp biomes would be a cool reference for that. On a side note: by that same logic, you can make an argument for large coal deposits under jungle lakes. Coal is reduced organic matter, most commonly coming from trees, and the most common coal deposits come from the carboniferous period, when the trees were huge. Jungles are already a relatively rare biome, and you need to have a lake in it for such a thing to be generated, so I don't think that'd unbalance the game.

[@BAMB00STE]

Your videos are incredible

[@SmearyPagee-v7n]

Those are some smooth bloc displays.

[@Monster_Knight]

this guy just casually moved a mountain like it was nothing, he's a God!

[@AdamT69]

Just stumbled across your video and it's exactly what i need. I usually have to choose science videos or Minecraft. Why not both 🎉

[@linusmatthew2259]

Love the video keep up the great content

[@shartdiffractor2582]

*Obligatory TFC (and Vintage Story) Praise* Especially Vintage Story, since it's an indie game with probably most realistic world generation and gameplay of any survival game.

[@iout]

I think if minecraft did add an oxidation mechanic to iron, it would have to be an active process, rather than passive like copper. Obviously that's not how it works in real life, but given player agency in the oxidation of iron would 1) keep it unique compared to copper and 2) be a lot less annoying to deal with since you don't have to wax it. Since iron irl rusts faster in the presence of water and heat, perhaps iron blocks in contact with water and above a heat source like a campfire would rust. Alternatively, you could just pop a block of iron in a furnace. Which doesn't really make sense I guess since the implication is a furnace melts the iron, which makes oxidation harder, but it would certainly be easier to implement.

[@TheBeldings-j5c]

Amazing video man

[@j_ak.]

so underrated bro Ty algorithm for giving me this video 🙏🙏

[@ModerationLabs]

Woah it reached the algorithm in under an hour

[@xd-hood-classic]

I would love to see video about Vintage Story, but since there's a lot of command block magic, TerraFirma will be a good option too.

[@dialog_box]

8:11 it's funny cuz in the snapshot when geodes were first introduced, the outer layer was actually tuff. and for a long time i didn't realize they had changed it to smooth basalt, but apparently that change was made in literally the next snapshot. so this would be yet another case of tuff being replaced with smooth basalt also 8:38 that's such a pretty color!! omg imagine a green stone variety in minecraft! i mean in terms of building palette it would probably not be too different from oxidized copper. but still, i want it! alright mojang, when are you gonna make a block vote to replace the mob vote and list dunite as one of the options (only for it to get outvoted by like deepslate 2 or something)

[@gneissname]

My first geology video on this channel was about that snapshot actually.

[@Senril_Trevelyan]

i just stumbled on this. ok. What the frick are those displays. actually insane stuff!

[@Angel_Underscore]

Well Gneiss, you made me learn again. How dare you make me smarter?

[@someonesgenericfish0]

I am intrigued to see what the final geological Earth timeline in Minecraft would look like, and what mods/datapacks/plugins you folks will use to achieve it.

[@gneissname]

My goal is to be all vanilla. The plants that were there are all resource packs. the animations are all datapacks that we are making.