Question
I finally gave in to my curiosity this weekend and bought Minecraft 1.1. I had largely avoided learning too much about it because I wanted to play through it myself and discover things without the help of guides and FAQs. However, I had a very disturbing situation happen last night. I am reluctant to look through any FAQs to hunt down an explanation because I may come across too many spoilers, so if someone could give me a direct explanation without much spoilerage I'd appreciate it.
My shelter:
To start, here was what the main part of my shelter looked like:
The shelter was constructed of native (i.e. un-mined) stone and cobblestone. I had one 1-block chest and two 2-block chests with signs above them, a furnace/oven, a crafting bench, a couple torches, and a step up to a doorway leading outside. The top right chest contained various stone and iron material, along with coal, flint, charcoal, and gunpowder. The top left chest contained wood and glass material. The smaller bottom left chest contained tools, armor, and assorted bits. Not sure if it matters, but the floor of my shelter was actually the ceiling of an overhanging cliff that was around 40 blocks high off the ground.
The incident:
I had just finished remodeling my shelter, having just filled my new chests and placed the signs above them to help me remember what I put in them. I was in the process of crafting some new iron objects at my bench when BLAM!!! There was an explosion, my screen went red, and my precious treasures went flying. Unfortunately, I didn't have my sound on (since my wife was sleeping on the couch) and don't know if there was any noise going on beforehand to warn me of the impending disaster.
Luckily, my respawn point was close, and I managed to frantically make my way back. To my surprise, it appeared that nearly all my objects were still there. Most were sitting in the same spot that their chest was in. As best I can tell, I was able to recover nearly everything, with the exception of the signs and 2 of the 5 chest blocks. Oddly, the door and torches outside were gone, but the structure itself was untouched save for two holes in the floor (marked "Gone" in the above picture).
What happened?
I'm baffled by what could have happened. I can't imagine a creeper snuck up on me, since at the time there was no way in (I took away the bricks leading up to the door). I've tangled with them before and their explosions have never outright killed me, just wounded me. They also tend to leave big craters, and there seemed to be too little structural damage in this case.
The only explanation I can come up with is that I organized my possessions badly. Should furnaces not be placed next to chests containing combustibles? Should certain materials not be stored together in the same chest, like flint and gunpowder?
Answer
As Ben Blank said, the only thing that will spontaneously cause an explosion, if you haven't made any TNT, is a creeper that got into your house. I see three possible directions for the creeper to enter from:
The caves
Most likely, either you have an insufficiently lit patch of floor in the connected caves (walls and ceilings don't matter), or there is a dark branch that you haven't found. I strongly recommend always installing doors at connections between caves and living space.
The front door
The damage you described seems to be focused around the doorward side of you. You say you removed "the bricks leading up to the door", but if there is still a one-block-jump path it is possible a creeper got in anyway. Next time, don't worry about removing the path, just close the door!
The ceiling
You haven't said anything about your ceiling design. Is it possible that your ceiling had a hole in it through which a creeper entered? There are [minimal spoilers] ways for dirt/grass blocks to go away, so if you had a dirt roof perhaps a creeper fell in.
Miscellany
To my surprise, it appeared that nearly all my objects were still there. Most were sitting in the same spot that their chest was in. As best I can tell, I was able to recover nearly everything, with the exception of the signs and 2 of the 5 chest blocks.
Chests drop their contents when destroyed, as you saw. If there had been two explosions, then the second one would have destroyed all of your resources, as they have almost no “health”.
They also tend to leave big craters, and there seemed to be too little structural damage in this case.
The size of an explosion crater depends on the strength of the materials. If you meet a creeper outside, then it will leave a large hole in the dirt, but the same explosion will do much less damage to stone.
Oddly, the door and torches outside were gone, but the structure itself was untouched save for two holes in the floor (marked "Gone" in the above picture).
Wooden objects are generally weaker against explosions, and torches have no blast resistance at all.
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