Tectonic Plate

First of all, do NOT get it in your heads that tectonic plates are to scale with the real world—that would be supremely laggy. No. Don't even think about it. Just no.

Anyways, tectonic plates in the real world can shift entire caves, cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. Tectonic plates, in these instances in my idea, are forces to be reckoned with.

## How the game defines a tectonic plate

The game defines a tectonic plate by a variant of stone surrounding the plate—this specifies what is and isn't in the same plate. Any normal stone blocks below it in the same tectonic plate that are exposed to the surface (via pistons, mining, etc) become new variants of this stone, thereby replacing the old one.

Tectonic plates generate in small ovaloid three-dimensional objects, almost like a flatter egg shape.

## What tectonic plates do

Tectonic plates move around, obviously. It's in their definition. However, unlike normal real-world plates, these plates are pretty small to reduce lag. There are multiple layers of plates–below the first layer of plates, there is a layer of Migma (although it isn't at all like this post, the name was gotten from it). Migma has low friction, like ice, but is solid and burns players.

The bottom layer of plates also moves faster when touching Migma, as if they were sliding across the surface.

### The moving of plates

Okay, so I'll outline the basic layers of plates first—the Migma takes up about four blocks, so there will be six layers of ten block high plates.

The Bottom Layer—The layer of plates touching Migma. These move rather constantly across "currents," which decide where *most* plates on the bottom layer go.

The Second Layer—The layer of plates located right above the bottom layer. A plate in this layer only moves after most of its below plates have moved (every other plate level will follow this movement pattern too), often in the dominant direction, although sometimes away from the area. These lower plates often decide epicenter a of earthquakes.

The Tertiary Layer—As usual, above the layer below it. These move only when all plates below it have moved at least once since their last movement. This layer, however, changes its placement more than one block per cycle–instead, it moves 2-4 blocks per cycle, often changing caves and confusing players.

The Other Three Layers—These work in the exact same manner as the second layer.

* Earthquakes—Earthquakes occur when two or more plates collide with eachother. The strength of the earthquake depends on the proximity to the second layer, amount of plates in the collision, and tectonic activity in the area. The higher all of these values are, the stronger the earthquake.

Earthquakes turn any natural blocks like dirt, stone, etc. into falling sand entities and can make blocks in the walls cave in towards the epicenter. It is a fast-paced (but not instant) event, and is accompanied by a constant rumble and screen-shaking.

* Volcanoes—These occur when one plate goes above another plate and breaches the surface. These will expand towards the sky, and other plates often join in. Eventually, it is classified as a volcano.

Volcanoes look like mountains with craters at the top. These can fill to the brim with lava and overflow, creating dangerous lava-mountains. During eruptions (the event when the lava fills the basin), fire charges meant to represent volcanic explosions will come from the volcano and arc downwards.

### Tectonic activity

The value that decides how much plates move in a chunk, and how strong eruptions and earthquakes are.

### Blocks, entities, and tile entities on plates

Technically, since it's Minecraft, you can stop earthquakes and volcanoes and stuff by filling gaps between plates with blocks. However, make these "stuffings" thick, as if they are too thin, tectonic plates can easily break through them.

The same also goes for weak blocks.

Entities are just pushed by tectonic plates.

Tile entities, I'm not sure about—I'm referring to tile entities as in chests, torches, etc. They can probably work in some way or another...

All tectonic plates' movements are accompanied by an animation of the plate sliding towards a destination of 1 (or 2-4, in the Third Layer's case) block away.