Nova Catalyst

The Nova Catalyst is a special explosive that can do quite a few things:
 * 1) They leave massive craters. They blister through all forms of material with relative ease, and have a very wide area of effect.
 * 2) They won't hurt you, or anything for that matter. You can stand right next to the blast as it safely vaporizes all materials nearby to their appropriate "collectable" forms. This also means no items will ever be "accidentally" vaporized.
 * 3) They don't drop individual items. Much like several of the alchemical items, this explosion drops everything in a neat, lag reducing bundle nearby the player, leaving you free to detonate massive quantities of the stuff in relative safety, and without the worry of losing the items in lava.

Due to the low blast resistance of Netherrack, most people choose to use Nova Catalysts in the Nether to produce diamonds. One Nova Catalyst will often produce an average of the equivalent of 2 diamond ores! Players must take caution when using this method, however. Although it does not take health damage on the player directly, Nova Catalysts usually create a very large blast radius, and most structures below or next to it will be destroyed.. Standing next to a Nova Catalyst while detonating will usually result in falling into a hole or even lava when it explodes.

The Nova Catalyst drops the items near the player, so if the player stands far enough away from the explosion site, the items will drop outside of the explosion's crater. The player does not even need to go near the crater at all!

Usage
Nova Catalysts can also be used to craft a Destruction Catalyst.

Destruction Catalyst