Ice

Ice is a semi-transparent solid block formed on Snowy Biomes (formely snow worlds) from exposed water, it was added in Version 1.0.4 alongside snow, and is slightly slippery. Any block of water exposed to snow will eventually freeze into ice. All sides of an ice block use the same texture.

Ice can be easily destroyed without tools, but using a pickaxe greatly helps. If there is another block directly underneath the block, it will revert back to water when broken, otherwise it will shatter into nothing in much the same way as glass.

Ice will melt into water when adjacent to level 12 light from any block that gives off light (sunlight does not melt ice). Torches cannot be placed on ice directly.

Due to a missing feature since the Halloween Update, water may no longer freeze into ice because it does not snow any more. Ice still naturally forms in certain biomes.

If hacked into an inventory, and placed on any type of surface (except for blocks in The Nether) and then broken, water will come pouring out of where it was broken.

Ice can be very useful for transporting resources (using water currents), as items and miniblocks move extremely fast when the water they are in flows over ice. Items slide on ice blocks when dropped at an angle even if water is not placed on top.

Trivia

 * If a player rides a pig on ice using a saddle, the pig moves incredibly fast, making journeys across long frozen lakes easier.
 * Although it is seemingly transparent, water cannot be seen through ice.
 * If an ice block is hacked into one's inventory and broken in the Nether, the water will not evaporate. This is useful for creating obsidian farms.
 * Sugar cane can be placed on the side of ice.
 * When a map generates it is possible to get a cave one block below water level with a ceiling of ice.
 * If an ice block is placed in mid-air and is melted by a source of light, such as glowstone, then it will melt into water while staying in the air. The water will remain suspended in the air until a block adjacent to it is modified.
 * If you try to light ice on fire with a flint and steel, no flames will appear, but the flint and steel will still act as if it had used (it will count as a use). The same thing happens with glass.

Eis