True-to-life Terrain
Elevation comes from NASA's ASTER GDEM V003 — 22,912 one-degree tiles covering the planet. Everest tops out around Y 328, and every ridge is where the data says it is.
Real-world Earth terrain, recreated block by block at a 1:30 scale — with real oceans, real floods, and real weather.
MineTerra: Hydrosphere (MTHydro) is a Minecraft server world that rebuilds the actual surface of the Earth block by block. By bringing real-time Earth hydrosphere data into the game, it reproduces the terrain and water distribution of the real Earth — so the Alps actually tower, the Mariana Trench actually drops, and your hometown sits exactly where it should. The project is in active development — new features keep landing.
Elevation comes from NASA's ASTER GDEM V003 — 22,912 one-degree tiles covering the planet. Everest tops out around Y 328, and every ridge is where the data says it is.
The world is a direct projection of Earth: the origin (0,0) is the equator × prime meridian, and degrees multiply by 3,710 to become blocks. GPS coordinates are block coordinates.
Seafloors follow the GEBCO 2026 depth charts. The Mariana Trench drops to about Y −265 — the further you sail from land, the deeper it really gets.
47 vanilla biomes are placed from real 30 m land cover (FROMGLC30) crossed with Köppen climate zones and elevation — deserts stand exactly where real deserts stand.
Rivers carry real names and real widths — and they rise when real floods are forecast. Floodwater is dangerous: currents push you and your boats around, your air runs out faster — and it damages builds in its path.
Real-world rainfall lifts the rivers, thunderstorms strike when real storms do, and the sun follows your local solar time — fly east and dawn comes earlier.
The world is an exact projection of Earth's surface, so any real coordinate converts to a block position:
# Geographic coordinate -> Minecraft block
blockX = longitude × 3710
blockZ = -latitude × 3710
# (0, 0) = equator + prime meridian (Gulf of Guinea)
# Negative Z = north, Positive X = east
Because the mapping is exact, you can fly to any place on Earth and find it where it belongs on the map. See the coordinate system →
Learn how the world is built — or jump straight in and build your base where your hometown really stands.