Let's start with the start of Earth. Haven't found a lot of evidence about that time however we can assume it began like our planet. Let's then rush millions of years into the future and into the era of dinosaurs. We can assume that the same thing happend to Minecraft dinosaurs that happend to ours. The meteor that hit the Overworld is actually more interesting than the one that hit us. The meteor in Minecraft was the deadly place called The Nether. I understand you are very skeptical, but I will hopefully convince you. I think that when the meteor hit the Overworld, it also brought up to the surface huge supplies of gold. This may seem strange, but I think gold is one of the most important resources in Minecraft. One of the first pieces of evidence for the Nether theory are the strange monsters in The Nether: Zombie Pigman. There is no reason why pigs would be in a meteor. And if it was a meteor, pigs wouldn't survive the space journey. So either when the meteor hit, it trapped some pigs in it which mutated them into Zombie Pigmen, or Pigmen (not zombie ones though) were a humanoid like creature around at the time which were trapped in the meteor and turned into Zombie Pigmen, while the meteor made all Pigmen mutate into pigs. Which version do you prefer? Let me know below. It makes even more sense when you consider that other mobs also have Nether alter-egos. Slimes have Magma Cubes, and Skeletons have Wither Skeletons. And coming back to the whole idea of gold, it either came in the meteor or there were large amounts hidden inside the planet. This may seem random, but it is actually extremely important later, so I should just explain it now. One of the clearest pieces of evidence is the large amount of gold ingots and gold equipment. One of the most obvious ones are golden swords Zombie Pigmen have. They also drop gold nuggets. Golden things like horse armour and ingots can also be found in fortresses. But that just shows there is gold there, not the huge amounts I talked about. What about Netherrack? Netherrack is the most common block in the Nether and has the strange property of staying alight forever. Kind of makes sense when you think of the theme of the Nether, however it can also show the gold that was present. How? Well gold is an element that is very non-reactive. That means it doesn't react and change. So it can be left in water forever and it will not rust/rust slightly. Just replace water with fire and rust with burning. So netherrack is just a mixture of gold and original material the meteor was made of. You may be a bit confused now. How can it change into netherrack if gold is very non-reactive? Well like I said above, it is a mixture, so something that is not chemically bound together. It would also explain netherracks colouring. It is red, a colour close to gold. Red can also be some of the dust or whatever the meteor was made of. It also has black, which shows signs of burning, but can also show that some completely different substance is also present in it.

However there is another thing found in the Nether that will help us support this "Gold Theory" and that thing is Nether Quartz. You see, gold coloured gold is not the only colour gold you can find in jeweler shops around the world. There is also white gold, or Nether Quartz as it is presented in the game. For this one I really needed to research a bit on metals, metal strength, etc. but here is what I gathered. While looking into real life gold and quartz, I found what is known as Moh's Scale of Mineral Hardness, which is used to identify hardness of minerals. The higher the number, the harder it is. Gold on that list is a 2.5, and quartz is a 7. This would mean that in the game, Nether quartz should be stronger than gold. Well let's compare their hardness as ores and blocks. Here are the results:

Gold ore has the harness of 3 and so does quartz ore. But since ore also includes stone and netherrack respectively, it could mess with the results. However if we take the pure material in the form of a block, we get a hardness of 3 for gold and only 0.8 for quartz. This means Nether quartz cannot be quartz because it is not stronger than gold. And the fact it just came crashing down could explain why it is weaker. Now one could argue that Moh's scale may not apply to Minecraft, but it actually does. On the scale, gold is pretty weak, then iron, and then diamond as the strongest of the three, which is exactly the order of strength in Minecraft.

All of this gold talk can also explain redstone. All the resources found underground in Minecraft are real, except for one: redstone. What do we know about redstone? Well it functions as the basis of this electricity-like system in Minecraft. This brings us back to gold. Gold is a great conductor of electricity, 3rd best, just behind copper and silver, minerals that are not in Minecraft. So why this non-existent mineral and not gold as the electrical standard in Minecraft. Well that's because gold IS redstone. First the big similarity, conducting electricity. And we know gold also has some proper use too, used in powered rails, with emphasis on the whole powered thing. But it makes sense. Redstone is red, meaning hot, like the Nether might have changed it. And that's why also a non-existent mineral like redstone is abundante underground, as it was all altered by a huge meteor. Also think about where it is usually found: near lava. Hot, mineral burning and altering substance like the one found in the Nether. So since gold is also used in powered rails, it is clear it is also considered a good electrical conductor in the redstone world of Minecraft, however there is another mineral used often in redstone, that it's real counterpart has nothing to do with electricity in real life: Quartz, or as we know it, white gold. It is used in comparators, repeaters, observers, daylight sensors, and even maybe command blocks, judging by the colour of the panel with all those lights. That's a big list for something that has nothing to do with electricity, as if quartz wasn't actually quartz. *wink*

However we can also answer the question of WHERE the meteor hit. I can confidently say that it landed in the mesa biome. It sounds random but just bear with me. One of the main pieces of evidence is what can be found very close to the surface of these biomes and in very large quantities. Gold and gold mines. And just look at the terrain. All red and burned up like, with little flora. Now you may ask which mesa? The world of Minecraft is huge. Well since this took place so long ago, the vegetation started to rebuild itseld in the least hazardous spots, cutting and dividing the mesa into smaller elements.