Dirt

Dirt is a type of block that was introduced very early in the game. It utilizes the same texture on all six sides of the block. Dirt is abundant on normally generated maps, making up the majority of the upper layers of blocks, between Grass or Snow and Stone.

When a Dirt block is adjacent to a Grass-covered block and exposed to sunlight, the top layer will eventually be covered with Grass; the exact time this happens is random and unpredictable.

Creative Mode
Dirt has been a usable block in Creative mode since its original addition to the game. Early in Minecraft when there were few block types, Dirt was often used as a building material. Since then its original creation, more suitable blocks for creating structures have been added, and dirt is now used mainly and most often for altering the terrain of a map.

Alpha Mode
Dirt is simple to mine and is often acquired in large amounts when unmonitered during its excavation. It will always drop a resource block, regardless of how it was mined. It may be mined by hand fairly quickly, but using a shovel will significantly speed up the process.

Due to its abundance, it is regarded by many players as a very weak type of block and is destroyed in explosions from TNT or Creepers. Dirt is generally used by players for terraforming.

Dirt has no present use in crafting, but using a hoe on a placed block of dirt will prepare the block for use in farming. After using a hoe on a block of dirt, the dirt's appearance changes, becoming ridged and bumpy like tilled soil. When a block of tilled dirt is introduced to a block of water, it becomes darker to replicate the appearance of wet soil.

Retired Modes

 * Survival Test - Dirt behaves like it does in Creative mode. Sheep eating grass causes it to turn back into dirt. Dirt is easily destroyed in any explosions near to it.
 * Indev - Same as Alpha.
 * Infdev - Same as Alpha.