Blocks within the buffer cache are ordered from MRU (most recently used) blocks to LRU (least recently used) blocks. Whenever a block is accessed, the block goes to the MRU end of the list, thereby shifting the other blocks down towards the LRU end. When a block is read from disk and when there is no buffer available in the db buffer cache, one block in the buffer cache has to "leave". It will be the block on the LRU end in the list.