If you set your render distance greater then 16 half the screen with glitch out.
It seems as though it only affects half the world, as seen in the screenshots.
The sea lamp pillar is at coordinate X:0 Z:0.
The first screenshot has the render distance at 16, world looks normal.
The next 2 are at 18, starting to glitch.
Picture 4 and 5 are at 24.
And the last ones at 32.
I first noticed this when I started playing with snapshots, this was version 14w32d. I don't know which version it first appeared.