[Minecraft] Mining straight down with 100% coverage

[3ICE]

Dig straight down at the marked locations.

Breaking 1 block per layer reveals 4 blocks around it. 1 block for 4: 400% performance. (This method is the best.)
Breaking 2 blocks per layer reveals 6 blocks around. 2 blocks for 6: 300% performance. (This is a 2x1 branchmine shaft for comparison with the above method.)

But this is only useful if you are looking for caves and have a good way of getting back up (teleportation).

This is the pattern (gray lines indicate block borders/edges):

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1 zoomed.png (636 Bytes) Viewed 8680 times

This is how it tiles infinitely:

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1 tiled zoomed.png (13.29 KiB) Viewed 9996 times

And some more images:

Spoiler:

Mining straight down with 100% coverage.png (97 Bytes) Viewed 8708 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage zoomed.png (226 Bytes) Viewed 8555 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage tiled.png (133 Bytes) Viewed 8506 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage tiled zoomed.png (930 Bytes) Viewed 8646 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 2.png (374 Bytes) Viewed 8520 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 2 zoomed.png (1.32 KiB) Viewed 8645 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 2 tiled.png (905 Bytes) Viewed 8587 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 2 tiled zoomed.png (10.65 KiB) Viewed 8932 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1.png (249 Bytes) Viewed 8526 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1 zoomed.png (636 Bytes) Viewed 8680 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1 tiled.png (936 Bytes) Viewed 8536 times

Mining straight down with 100% coverage 1 tiled zoomed.png (13.29 KiB) Viewed 9996 times

[3ICE]

This will be the final size:

Circle of no mobs zoomed for your convenience.png (38.59 KiB) Viewed 17008 times

[3ICE]

And to put it in scale: (Each gray square is a 16×16 chunk.)

Circle of no mobs chunksliced zoomed for your convenience.png (37.48 KiB) Viewed 9106 times

Circle of no mobs chunksliced.png (4.92 KiB) Viewed 8663 times