Lava Lake

For the removed water lakes, see Water Lake. For lava aquifers, see Cave. For lava in basalt deltas, see Delta. For "lava lakes" in the Nether, see Lava sea.

Lava lake

Biomes	Any Overworld biome except for the deep dark
Generates in existing chunks	No
Consists of	Cave Air‌[Java Edition only] Air‌[Bedrock Edition only] Stone Lava

A lava lake is a small, widespread, naturally-generated feature in the Overworld that contains a volume of lava.

Description

Lava lakes are shallow and often small bodies of liquid. Lava lakes found at the surface are surrounded by stone, which can be replaced by other features such as ore features of blocks. These ore features are made of blocks like dirt, gravel, and coal ore.

Lava lakes generate with a small air pocket above them, which may result in floating sand, floating snow cover, or even floating trees above^[1]. Lava lakes that spawn on ground level may cause nearby trees to catch on fire and burn away.

Generation

Lava lakes are rare on the surface but often found underground above Y=0, and replace blocks around them with stone. They can generate in any biomes in Overworld except the deep dark.

In Java Edition, the air pockets above lakes are generated with cave air instead of normal air. This is true even for lakes that are exposed to the open sky.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Feature type	Identifier
[No displayed name]	lake

Configured feature	Identifier
[No displayed name]	lake_lava

Bedrock Edition:

Feature	Identifier
[No displayed name]	[No ID]

Config

Java Edition:

Note that lake features are generated on their northwest corner, with the actual center of the lake being offset from the placement position by +8 blocks on both the X and Z axes. It's recommended to counteract this by applying an xz_spread offset of -8 blocks to placed lake features before performing any additional checks such as block predicate filters.

Lake features require a sufficient amount of solid blocks in order to generate, including (but not limited to) a solid base at least 3 blocks thick (starting from one block below the placement position). The fluid level of generated lake features is always one block below the placement position.

Noise-type blockstate providers apply a single blockstate for the entire lake based on its placement position rather than the position of the lake's individual constituent blocks.

Lake features exhibit a bug in which the freeze top layer feature type is applied only to portions of the lake that are within the chunk from which the lake feature originates. In effect, this means that usually only the north-west corner of water lakes are iced over in snowy biomes.

{
  "type": "minecraft:lake",
  "config": {
    "barrier": {
      "type": "minecraft:simple_state_provider",
      "state": {
        "Name": "minecraft:stone"
      }
    },
    "fluid": {
      "type": "minecraft:simple_state_provider",
      "state": {
        "Name": "minecraft:lava",
        "Properties": {
          "level": "0"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Lava Lake" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  A lava lake in a badlands biome
• 
  A waterfall naturally generated on top of a lava lake, turning it into obsidian
• 
  A lava lake in plains biome
• 
  A lava lake found directly on the surface of the world
• 
  2 naturally-occurring lava lakes next to each other
• 
  A lava lake spawned naturally, note the forest fire nearby.
• 
  A giant burning in a lava lake
• 
  A lava lake in a desert
• 
  Another lava lake in a desert
• 
  A lava lake in a swamp
• 
  This cave intersected a lava lake, rather than hitting the lava level like is more commonly seen
• 
  A fern next to an underground lava lake
• 
  Snow layer generated on top of lava lake
• 
  A lava lake near a ravine in a desert
• 
  Lava lake in snowy taiga biome
• 
  A lava lake that is burning grass
• 
  A lava lake in a village
• 
  A lava lake that is intersecting with an amethyst geode
• 
  A lava lake with some snow floating over it
• 
  An allegedly naturally created heart-shaped lava lake
• 
  A lava lake setting fire to a forest

References