I went into Video Options
I changed the render distance from 5 (I believe) to 8.
I also changed Brightness from 'Moody' to +25%
I cycled through Particles but kept 'All'

Upon clicking 'Done' the top layer of blocks is transparent.
It does not change if I return to the Video Options and then back.

Upon changing the render distance, the number of blocks correctly rendered changes.
From 2 to 6 - the rendering is fine.
At 7 - some issues with land in top right of screen
At 8 - all ground transparent
From 9 to 16 - there is an animation glitch when 'Done' is pressed. Only some land is rendered. It appears to repeat itself. There appear to be linear artifacts along the water which now covers most of the screen.

When I exit the Main Menu it gets much worse. Very strange rendering.
Only solved by dropping back to rendering distances below 6.