Excavation

Excavation is the ability in McMMO related to using a shovel to dig anything on the soil chart, including exotic materials like Soul Sand. High-level Excavators can produce diamonds from dirt easily. (Like most McMMO abilities, it will only work if McMMO drops can spawn on the blocks, and not if they are funnelled into the player's inventory like with some plugins.)

Abilities
'EXCAVATION HAS NEW ABILITIES. LIST THEM HERE!'

Increasing skill level
You level up by digging materials that are mined faster with a shovel.

Scouring the entire surface, or at least large hills, is the fastest way to level Excavation.

(This method no longer works) Another good way is to stock up on shovels and make a trapped snowman. This will allow you to dig the snow underneath it which is constantly refreshed. As the snow is fast to break, it will wear out your tools very quickly, but it will also help you to level very quickly in the comfort of your own home without having to worry about finding stuff to excavate. Keep an iron block nearby and use an iron shovel to clear the snow. When you are running low on durability, just repair the shovel and keep on digging. This method trains up Excavation and Repair at the same time. Stone can also be used at the cost of maintanance and XP. With the right scripting tools and settings, this can be automated as a client-side bot. It can also be automated with dispensers and a timer, and shovels can be gained through a mob grinder if you're lucky, or in the newest update of Minecraft, automatically crafted from iron ore, coal, and wood through hoppers and recipe selection.

You can also use Giga Drill Breaker in bursts to speed up digging, at the expense of extra durability wear on your shovel. To counteract this, use diamond shovels. Past level 350, it is more common than not to get at least 1 diamond from a single Giga Drill Breaker, allowing you to repair the shovel whenever durability starts to drop.

*Calculated with assuming you can receive every drop and your excavation level is over 900. XP/block can vary between servers as it's configurable by server admins.

Leveling Table (Theoretical Time)
* It's calculated without receiving drops other than dirt from it. Times may vary depending on the shovel used or other variables, such as accuracy. These variables can be negated using client-side bots.

Trivia

 * The 'Giga Drill Breaker' ability is a reference to the move 'Giga Drill Breaker' from the anime "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann".
 * The original name of the move was "Giga Drill Break" but "Giga Drill Breaker" stuck with the public due to Japanese pronunciation of English. It also was not used to harvest materials, instead being relegated to combat.