Best method to clear large sections of land to bedrock

Question

Using TNT, I am trying to roughly mine a 360x360 area of land completely to bedrock. Does anyone know the most efficient way to blast massive sections of land relatively cleanly?

No, on creative, but on the xbox 360. So no console commands like PC. — JCrafter, Jan 03 '15 at 06:17
It WAS sea, but I already spent around 100 hours getting rid of the water, lol. — JCrafter, Jan 03 '15 at 06:23
Create a bedrock border around it and blow up everything inside? — user271360, Jan 03 '15 at 06:26
Yeah, that's the general idea, but how should I grid it out? 2 blocks between each stack of TNT to bedrock? 3 block between? Is it better to go vertical or horizontal? Should there be single stacks of TNT, or in a 3x3 configuration? 5x5? Is a grid pattern even the best way to go? — JCrafter, Jan 03 '15 at 06:31
I gave the 3x3 a shot in a relatively small area, and there was a decent amount of crap throughout the hole it made that didn't get destroyed. The time it takes to clean the crap up doesn't seem ideal. — JCrafter, Jan 03 '15 at 06:43
TNT won't be perfect, there's always going to be crap to clean up. Go the Achievement Hunter route, get a bunch of friends, give em all beer, and spend the night digging — , Jan 03 '15 at 17:40

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 02 '16 at 11:22

I would keep placing TNT blocks every 7 blocks or so in a grid formation, lighting them up, watching the fireworks, then placing TNT blocks again in the same locations.

The deeper you can get them, the better. TNT has a random spherical blast radius.
You could also randomly place blocks and I suppose it would save time. You could go deep and create a huge cluster of TNT underground, then blow it up.

Of course you get get a bunch of friends and clear the area manually (Or even do it yourself.) Have fun!

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 19 '15 at 04:16

This is very difficult, because water and lava source blocks are unaffected by TNT, so any underground veins would become a problem unless you're willing to put in the time commitment to go around with a bucket and collect each and every single source block. I wouldn't be surprised if you are (I would be), so really, just place TNT on the land you want to clear and blow it up. Simple as that. Also, try to be systematic about it. I know from experience that systematic work gets the best results (both in Minecraft and in life!).

You can also fill-in lava and water by just placing blocks inside the lakes, and dig them back out afterward. (I'd do this for water but not for lava, as lava is a finite resource) — Robotnik, Apr 28 '15 at 01:16