Sand

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.5
Hardness	0.5
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

Sand is a block affected by gravity.

Red sand is a variation of sand that cannot be used to craft concrete powder.

Obtaining[edit]

Breaking[edit]

Sand can be broken without tools, but a shovel is the fastest method of obtaining it.

Block	Sand
Hardness	0.5
Tool
Breaking time^[A]
Default	0.75
Wooden	0.4
Stone	0.2
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.1
Netherite	0.1
Golden	0.1

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Natural generation[edit]

Sand generates naturally in many biomes of the Overworld near lakes or ponds, notably deserts, beaches, and rivers, generally in four-block-deep layers supported by stone and sandstone. Sand also generates as the ocean floor of lukewarm oceans, warm oceans, and their respective deep variants. It usually generates in quantities of 545 blocks per chunk on average in non-desert biomes.

Sand is also used to cover up buried treasure chests depending on where the chest generates in. (In this case, sand is used to cover up buried treasure chests that generate in beaches and ocean floors that are composed of sand, but in some cases stone or sandstone might be used instead).

Sand also generates as part of warm ocean ruins and some desert village houses.

Red sand generates naturally in badlands biomes and variants.

Both types of sand can spawn floating in the air. The floating cluster of sand falls when one of the sand blocks receives an update (e.g. when a block is placed near it or when a block near it is broken).

Chest loot[edit]

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Sand	Desert temple	Chest	1–8	59%
Bedrock Edition
Sand	Desert temple	Chest	1–8	59%

Trading[edit]

Wandering traders sell 4 red sand for three emeralds.

Wandering traders also sell 8 sand for one emerald.

Usage[edit]

If the block below either type of sand is air, it falls until it lands on the next available block. While sand is falling, it exhibits a smooth falling animation.

If falling sand lands and covers the head of a mob or the player, the mob or player buried in it continuously receives suffocation damage. If falling sand lands in the space occupied by a non-solid block (such as torches, slabs, rails, or redstone), it drops and turns into an item. If it falls onto a cobweb, it falls slowly until it has gone through completely; if it touches the ground while still inside the cobweb, it becomes an item. Sand that falls onto a lifting bubble column floats on top of the water until the bubble column is blocked or removed.

Though TNT does not break any blocks when ignited underwater, if sand, concrete powder, or gravel is placed on TNT and the TNT is ignited, it breaks blocks when the sand falls on it.

Crafting ingredient[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Concrete Powder	Sand + Matching Dye + Gravel	8888888888888888
Sandstone or Red Sandstone	Sand or Red Sand
TNT	Gunpowder + Sand or Red Sand
White Concrete Powder or Blue Concrete Powder or Brown Concrete Powder or Black Concrete Powder	Bone Meal or Lapis Lazuli or Cocoa Beans or Ink Sac + Sand + Gravel	8888	‌^{[Bedrock and Education editions only]}

Smelting ingredient[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Glass	Sand or Red Sand + Any fuel	0.1

Construction[edit]

Sand can be used in the construction of airlocks and mob suffocation traps. Being affected by gravity, it can be quickly and easily removed from ground level.

Farms[edit]

Sand or red sand is required for farming cactus, and can also be used for farming bamboo, sugar cane and kelp.

Note Blocks[edit]

Sand and red sand can be placed under note blocks to produce "snare drum" sound.

Sounds[edit]

Java Edition:

Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Block broken	Blocks	Breaking the block	`block.sand.break`	`subtitles.block.generic.break`	1.0	0.8	16
None^{[sound 1]}	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	`block.sand.fall`	None^{[sound 1]}	0.5	0.75	16
Block breaking	Blocks	Mining the block	`block.sand.hit`	`subtitles.block.generic.hit`	0.25	0.5	16
Block placed	Blocks	Placing the block	`block.sand.place`	`subtitles.block.generic.place`	1.0	0.8	16
Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	`block.sand.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition: ^{[needs in-game testing]}

Sound	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Volume	Pitch
?	Blocks	Breaking the block	`dig.sand`	?	0.8
?	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	`fall.sand`	?	?
?	Blocks	Mining the block	`hit.sand`	?	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	`jump.sand`	?	?
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	`land.sand`	?	?
?	Blocks	Walking on the block	`step.sand`	?	?
?	Blocks	Placing the block	`use.sand`	?	0.8

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Block tags (JE)	Item tags (JE)	Translation key
Sand	`sand`	`bamboo_plantable_on` `enderman_holdable` `sand`	`sand`	`block.minecraft.sand`
Red Sand	`red_sand`	`bamboo_plantable_on` `enderman_holdable` `sand`	`sand`	`block.minecraft.red_sand`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Sand	`sand`	`12`	`tile.sand.default.name` `tile.sand.red.name`

Block data[edit]

In Bedrock Edition, sand uses the following data values:

	DV	Description
	0	Sand
	1	Red sand

Block states[edit]

In Bedrock Edition, sand uses the following block states:

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
sand_type	`normal`	`normal`	Sand
sand_type	`normal`	`red`	Red Sand

Falling block entity[edit]

Falling Block

Hitbox size	Height: 0.98 Blocks Width: 0.98 Blocks

Dynamic block entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the block entity for this block.
- BlockState: The falling block represented by this entity.
  - Name: The namespaced ID of the block.
  - Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
    - Name: The block state name and its value.
- Time: The number of ticks the entity has existed. If set to 0, the moment it ticks to 1, it vanishes if the block at its location has a different ID than the entity's TileID. If the block at its location has the same ID as its TileID when Time ticks from 0 to 1, the block is deleted, and the entity continues to fall, having overwritten it. When Time goes above 600, or above 100 while the block is below Y=0, the entity is deleted.
- DropItem: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should drop as an item when it breaks. Any block that does not have an item form with the same ID as the block does not drop even if this is set.
- HurtEntities: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should hurt entities it falls on.
- FallHurtMax: The maximum hit points of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this falling_block . For vanilla falling_block, always 40 × 20.
- FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the FallDistance to calculate the amount of damage to inflict. By default this value is always 2.

History[edit]

Java Edition Classic

May 21, 2009 Notch shows interest in adding sand.

May 23, 2009 Notch says he accomplished adding sand.

0.0.14a Added sand.

Sand behaves similarly to gravel, which was also added during this update.

Sand blocks appear naturally only in one block-thick beaches (usually by water or in the middle of a landscape). These beaches are always at and below ocean level.

Rather than falling by turning into a falling block entity, sand instantly appears at the lowest point it can go when placed above an air block, without any sort of falling animation. This behavior lasted until the Seecret Friday 1 update, in Infdev.

A glitch occurring at this time allows players to raise the height of a fluid block by placing sand over it. The sand stays suspended in mid-air until it is broken. When broken, a fluid block corresponding to the type below the sand appears where the block was. The suspended fluid block remains immobile until a block was placed next to it, causing a flood.

Map editors can be used to create floating sand, crashing the server if the sand was affected from its state.

0.0.15a The texture of sand has been changed.

0.0.19a Sand has been removed from the inventory (hotbar) because of a lack of space.

0.0.20a Sand has been re-added to the inventory.

Java Edition Indev

0.31 20100111-1 Islands now have more sand.

20100129 Sand is now used to craft TNT.

Java Edition Infdev

Minecraft Infdev 20100227-1 Sand has been removed during map tests.^[1]

20100413 Sand has been re-added.

20100618 Sand now falls realistically.

Sand can now be destroyed by falling onto a non-solid object, not dropping as item. This was fixed in a later update.^[when?]

Java Edition Beta

1.2 FallingSand entities now behaves better in multiplayer.

Sand can now be used to craft sandstone.

1.3 Sand now generates with sandstone under it.

1.8 Pre-release Due to changes in the terrain generator, sand no longer appears in beaches.

Sand now generates anywhere that water does in large, circular patterns, noticeably larger than the similar patterns of clay. These can occur anywhere water does, including in village farms.

Java Edition

1.0.0 Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 The texture of sand has been slightly changed.

1.1 12w01a Sand now appears in beaches again, which have been re-added as a biome, rather than a generated structure.

1.4.2 12w38a Sand now has new sounds when being walked on.

1.7.2 13w39a Added red sand.

1.8 14w10a Sand with numerical metadata variants 2 through 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay, now have a missing texture rather than appearing identical to sand.

14w25a

Sand and its variant are now defined via block states rather than by numerical metadata. Prior to this version, the numerical metadata variants of sand were as follows:

	DV	Description
	0	Sand
	1	Red Sand
	2-15	Inaccessible "boring" variants of sand

14w26a Sand with metadata values 2 through 15 have now been completely removed from the game.

14w27b Sand and red sand's textures now rotate randomly, making beaches and deserts look less uniform.

1.9 15w44a Sand can now be found in desert temple chests.

1.10 16w20a Falling dust particles for unsupported sand has been added.

1.12 17w06a Sand can now be used to craft concrete powder.

1.13 17w47a The different block states for the sand ID have been split up into their own IDs.

Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 12.

18w08b Sand now generates on the floors of warm and lukewarm ocean biomes.

18w09a Sand can now generate in underwater ruins.

1.14 18w43a The textures of sand and red sand have been changed.

18w44a The texture of sand has been changed, once again.

18w47a The texture of red sand has been changed, once again.

? Sand is now sold by wandering traders, making sand renewable.

Pocket Edition Alpha

v0.1.0 Added sand.

v0.3.0 Sand can now be used to craft sandstone.

v0.4.0 Sand can now be used to craft TNT.

v0.6.0 Sand is now affected by gravity.

v0.8.0 build 8 Falling sand now drops a resource when landing on a non-solid block.

v0.9.0 build 1 Added red sand.

v0.10.0 build 1 Falling dust particles for unsupported sand have been added.

v0.14.0 build 1 Red sand can now be used to craft red sandstone.

Pocket Edition

1.0.0 alpha 0.17.0.1 Sand can now be found inside desert temple chests.^[verify]

1.1.0 alpha 1.1.0.0 Sand can now be used to craft concrete powder.

Bedrock Edition

1.4.0 beta 1.2.14.2 Sand now generates on the floors of warm and lukewarm ocean biomes.

Sand now sometimes generates on top of buried treasure chests in beaches.

beta 1.2.20.1 Sand can now generate in some warm underwater ruins.

1.10.0 beta 1.10.0.3 The textures of sand and red sand have been changed.

1.11.0 beta 1.11.0.4 Sand and red sand can now be bought from wandering traders.

1.12.0 beta 1.12.0.4 Wandering traders no longer sell regular sand.

1.16.0 beta 1.16.0.57 Trading has changed, wandering trader can now sell regular sand, making it renewable again.

Legacy Console Edition

TU1 CU1 1.0 Patch 1 1.0.1 Added sand.

TU14 1.04 The sound made when mining sand has been changed.

TU31 CU19 1.22 Patch 3 Added red sand.

1.90 The textures of sand and red sand have been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

0.1.0 Added sand.

Issues[edit]

Issues relating to "Sand" or "Red Sand" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit]

If a block of sand has snow on it and is made to fall, the snow is destroyed‌^{[Java Edition only]} and does not drop snowballs.
Since falling sand is considered an entity, it can be launched in a TNT cannon, similar to an ignited piece of TNT.
Sand falls at the same rate when submerged in water, or lava, or air.
If a player is standing on a stack of sand or gravel, and the stack falls onto a non-solid block, the player can fall fast enough to take damage or even die.
Sand falls through torches without breaking, if there is air below the torch.
Sand and gravel take about 0.45 seconds to fall one meter.
The sand texture is rotated if a block of sand turns into a falling_block entity, similar to ignited TNT blocks. This is not the case with gravel.
Since falling_block is considered an entity, blocks of sand without supports may disappear for a split second and a falling_block entity is summoned. This is also the case when it's landing, but the entity (not the block) disappears instead before a block is placed.
Sand or gravel placed on top of a 2-block-high plant floats in the air until receiving a block update. This glitch was removed and later restored intentionally.