Sand

Transparent	No
Luminance	0
Blast resistance	2.5
Tool
Renewable	Sand : Yes‌^{[Java Edition only]} Red Sand : Yes‌^{[Java and Bedrock editions only]}
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Experience	Smelted: 0.1
Drops	Itself
Data values	Sand dec: 12⁰ hex: C⁰ bin: 1100⁰ Red Sand dec: 12¹ hex: C¹ bin: 1100¹
Namespaced ID	See § Data values

This article is about sand in the Overworld. For sand in the Nether, see Soul Sand.

	“	Sand spawns naturally in four-block-deep layers in various parts of most biomes of the Overworld. You'll find it everywhere from forests, to plains, to tundra and swamps. In Mesa biomes, you'll find a variant of sand that's red and acts exactly like regular sand except that you can't use it to make concrete. Actually, that sounds like a bug. Maybe we should fix that.	„
		— Duncan Geere^[1]

Sand is a block affected by gravity.

Red sand is a variation of sand that cannot be used to craft concrete powder, and on which turtles cannot hatch.

Obtaining[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^{[note 1]}
Hand	0.75
Wooden	0.4
Stone	0.2
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.1
Golden	0.1

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds. For more information, see Haste § Instant mining.

Natural generation[edit]

Sand generates naturally in many biomes of the Overworld near lakes or pond, notably deserts, beaches, and rivers, generally in four-block-deep layers supported by stone and sandstone. Sand also generate as ocean floor in lukewarm, warm ocean and their deep variants

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). ‌^{[Java and Bedrock editions only]}

Sand also generate as part of warm underwater 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 (when a block is placed near it or when a block near it is broken).

Sand can be found in 59.0% of desert temple chests in stacks of 1–8.

Trading[edit]

Wandering traders sell 4 red sand for one emerald.‌^{[Bedrock and Java editions only]}

Wandering traders also sell 8 sand for one emerald.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Usage[edit]

Sand, if there is no block below it, falls until it lands on the next available block. While sand is falling, it exhibits a smooth falling animation.

If falling sand lands covers the head of a mob or the player, the mob or player buried in it continuously receive 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 turn 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 can be placed on a non-solid block without falling.

Crafting ingredient[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Concrete Powder	Matching Dye + Sand + Gravel	88888888888888888888
Sandstone or Red Sandstone	Sand or Red Sand
TNT	Gunpowder + Sand or Red Sand

Smelting ingredient[edit]

Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Sand or Red Sand + Any fuel

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 and red sand can be used for farming bamboo, cactus, and sugar cane.

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Block	Namespaced ID
Sand	`sand`
Red Sand	`red_sand`

Bedrock Edition:

Block	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID
Sand	`sand`	12

Block data[edit]

Block states[edit]

falling_block entity[edit]

Falling Block

Internal ID	JE: 21 BE: 66
Network ID	JE: 70
Namespaced ID	falling_block

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 doesn't have an item form with the same ID as the block won't 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. For vanilla falling_block, 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. It 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 now 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.
0.0.19a				Removed sand from the inventory (hotbar) because of a lack of space.
0.0.20a				Re-added sand to the inventory.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100111-1		Islands now have more sand.
0.31		20100129		Sand is now used to craft TNT.
Java Edition Infdev
Infdev		2010-02-27		Sand has now been removed during map tests.^[2]
		2010-04-13		Sand has now been re-added.
		2010-06-18		Sand now falls realistically.
		2010-06-18		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.
1.2				Sand can now be used to craft sandstone.
1.3				Sand now generates with sandstone under it.
1.8		?		Due to changes in the terrain generator, sand no longer appears in beaches.
1.8		?		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 NPC Village farms.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6		Sand texture has now 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.
1.3.1		12w22a		Inventory sprites for blocks have now been flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.4.2		12w38a		Sand now has new sounds when being walked on.
1.7.2		13w39a		Added red sand.
1.8		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 now 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.
		17w47a		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		Sand and red sand's textures have now been changed.
		18w44a		Sand's texture has now been changed, once again.
		18w47a		Red sand's texture has now been changed, once again.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0				Added sand.
0.3.0				Sand can now be used to craft sandstone.
0.4.0				Sand can now be used to craft TNT.
0.6.0				Sand is now affected by gravity.
0.8.0		build 8		Falling sand now drops a resource when landing on a non-solid block.
0.9.0		build 1		Added red sand.
0.10.0		build 1		Falling dust particles for unsupported sand have now been added.
0.14.0		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.
		beta 1.2.14.2		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		Sand and red sand's textures have now 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 trader no longer sell regular sand.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added sand.
TU14	CU1	1.04	Patch 1	The sound made when mining sand has now been changed.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	Added red sand.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90				Changed the texture of sand and red sand.
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 FallingSand 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.