Gravel

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.6
Hardness	0.6
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

Gravel is a block that is affected by gravity.

Obtaining[]

Natural generation[]

Gravel is generated in disks on beaches, near rivers and small pools of water; in gravelly mountains biomes covering most of the surface; and underwater covering the bottom of normal, cold, and frozen ocean biomes, as well as their deep variants.

Gravel can generate in the Overworld in the form of blobs. Gravel attempts to generate 8 times per chunk in blobs of size 0-160, at all levels and in all biomes. ‌In Java Edition 1.18‌^[upcoming] and with the Caves & Cliffs experimental gameplay toggle in Bedrock Edition, gravel does not generate below Y=-4. It can replace stone, granite, andesite, diorite, tuff, and deepslate.

Gravel can also generate as part of cold ocean ruins.

In the Nether, gravel generates naturally in multiple-block-deep layers, along the shores of the lava ocean. It often generates without blocks below it, in which case it falls when updated.

Blobs of gravel attempt to replace netherrack 2 times per chunk in blobs of size 0-160, from levels 5 to 41, in all Nether biomes except basalt deltas.

Breaking[]

Gravel can be broken using any tool, but a shovel is the quickest. When broken, it has a 10% chance of dropping flint instead of the gravel itself. The flint received can be controlled with enchantments. Silk Touch removes the chance of dropping flint. Fortune increases the chance to 14% at the level I, 25% at level II, and 100% at level III.

Block	Gravel
Hardness	0.6
Tool
Breaking time^[A]
Default	0.9
Wooden	0.45
Stone	0.25
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.15
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.

If gravel falls onto a non-full block, it drops as an item and does not drop flint.

Bartering[]

Piglins may barter 8-16 gravel when given a gold ingot.

Usage[]

If the supporting block below a block of gravel is removed, it falls until it lands on the next available block. More specifically, the gravel block turns into a "falling block" entity, which is affected by gravity; when the falling block lands on a block with a solid top surface, it becomes a block again. More information about the falling block entity are available in the main article listed above.

When gravel falls on a player or mob, it can engulf the head, resulting in suffocation inside gravel until destroying the block, moving out of it, or dying. If falling gravel lands in a space occupied by a non-solid block (such as torches, slabs, rails, or redstone dust) or soul sand, it breaks and turns into a gravel item. Gravel falls slowly through a cobweb until it passes completely through, or until it touches any block, at which point it drops and becomes a gravel item.

Gravel can be placed on a non-solid block without falling.

Bamboo can be placed and grown on gravel.

Crafting ingredient[]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Coarse Dirt	Dirt + Gravel	4
Concrete Powder	Matching Dye + Sand + Gravel	8888888888888888
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]}

Trading[]

Novice-level fletcher villagers have a 50%‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or ²⁄₃‌^{[Java Edition only]} chance to buy 10 gravel and one emerald for 10 flint as part of their trade.

Note blocks[]

Gravel can be placed under note blocks to produce snare drum sounds.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	`block.gravel.break`	`subtitles.block.generic.break`	1.0	0.8	16
None^{[sound 1]}	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	`block.gravel.fall`	None^{[sound 1]}	0.5	0.75	16
Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	`block.gravel.hit`	`subtitles.block.generic.hit`	0.25	0.5	16
Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	`block.gravel.place`	`subtitles.block.generic.place`	1.0	0.8	16
Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	`block.gravel.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-177082

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Block tags (JE)	Form	Translation key
Gravel	`gravel`	`bamboo_plantable_on` `enderman_holdable` `lush_ground_replaceable‌` `mineable/shovel`	Block & Item	`block.minecraft.gravel`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Gravel	`gravel`	`13`	Block & Item	`tile.gravel.name`

Falling block entity[]

Falling Block

Hitbox size	Height: 0.98 Blocks Width: 0.98 Blocks

Dynamic block entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- BlockState: The falling block represented by this entity.
  - Name: The resource location of the block.
  - Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
    - Name: The block state name and its value.
- 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.
- FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the FallDistance to calculate the amount of damage to inflict. By default this value is always 2.
- FallHurtMax: The maximum hit points of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this falling block . For vanilla falling blocks, always 40 × 20.
- HurtEntities: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should hurt entities it falls on.
- TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the block entity for this block.
- 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 BlockState.Name. If the block at its location has the same ID as its BlockState.Name 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=1 or is outside building height, the entity is deleted.

History[]

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding gravel.
May 23, 2009					Notch says he accomplished adding sand. This claim may also extend to gravel.
0.0.14a					Added gravel.
					Gravel behaves similarly to sand, which was also added during this update.
					Rather than falling by turning into a falling block entity, gravel instantly appears at the lowest point it can go when placed above an air block, without any sort of falling animation. This behavior that lasted until the Seecret Friday 1 update, in Infdev.
					Map editors can now be used to create floating gravel, although the server crashes if the gravel is affected from its state.
0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 1)					The texture of gravel has been changed.
0.0.23a					A glitch occurring at this time allows players to raise the height of a fluid block by placing gravel over it. The gravel stays suspended in mid-air until it is broken. When broken, a fluid block corresponding to the type below the gravel appears where the block was. The suspended fluid block remains immobile until a block was placed next to it, causing a flood.
Java Edition Indev
20100219					Gravel now has a 10% chance of dropping flint.
Java Edition Infdev
20100227-1					Gravel has been removed during map tests.^[1]
20100413					Gravel has been re-added.
20100617-2					Gravel now generates as blobs underground, along with dirt, for more varied caves.
20100618					The gravel now turns into an entity while falling, which makes them fall more smoothly and realistically.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0_01					Some soul sand is replaced by gravel in the Nether.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					`FallingSand` entities now behave better in multiplayer.
1.8		Pre-release			Terrain generation has been changed, removing gravel beaches.
1.8		Pre-release			Gravel now generates as disks near water.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			The texture of gravel has been changed.
1.3.1		12w21a			The texture of gravel has been changed again.
1.3.1		12w22a			Gravel is now able to be used in the trading system: buying flint costs 1 emerald and 10 gravel.
1.4.2		12w38a			Gravel now has new sounds when being walked on.
1.7.2		13w36a			Ocean floors are now made completely of gravel, instead of a mixture of dirt, sand and clay.
1.7.2		13w36a			Added the gravelly mountains biome (then known as mutated extreme hills), where the surface is covered in several-block-deep layers of gravel.
1.8		14w25a			Gravel can now be used to craft coarse dirt.
1.10		16w20a			Falling dust particles for unsupported gravel have been added.
1.12		17w06a			Gravel is now used to craft concrete powder.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 13.
1.13		18w09a			Gravel now generates in ocean ruins.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of gravel has been changed.
1.14		19w14a			Soul sand and gravel now generate around lava sea level instead of between y level 60 and 65.^[2]
1.16		20w07a			Gravel now has a ⁵⁄₁₀₉ (~4.59%) chance of being given by the new piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 4–12, making it renewable.
1.16		20w09a			Gravel now has a ¹⁰⁄₁₁₃ (~8.82%) chance of being given by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1–5.
1.17		21w06a			Gravel blobs are now able to generate below Y=0.
1.17		21w07a			Gravel blobs no longer generate below Y=0.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.18		experimental snapshot 4			Strips of gravel sometimes generate in stone shores and stony peaks.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					Added gravel. It is currently unobtainable.
v0.1.0					The texture of gravel icon in the inventory has been added.
v0.2.0					The textures of gravel and icon in the inventory have been changed.
v0.2.0					Gravel is now obtainable in both Survival and Creative mode.
v0.4.0					The texture of gravel icon in the inventory has been changed.
v0.5.0					The texture of gravel icon in the inventory has been changed, once again.
v0.6.0					The texture of gravel icon in the inventory has been changed, once again.
v0.6.0					Gravel is now affected by gravity.
v0.8.0		build 2			The texture of gravel has been changed.
		build 2			The inventory icon of gravel is now rendered block instead of texture.
		build 8			Falling gravel now drops a resource when landing on a non-solid block.
v0.9.0		build 1			Terrain generation has been changed, removing gravel beaches.
					Gravel now generates as disks in or near water, and also completely comprises ocean floors.
					Gravel no longer falls when generated.
					Gravel now appears in villages.
v0.10.0		build 1			Falling dust particles for unsupported gravel have been added.
v0.11.0		build 1			Gravel no longer generates as a village path.
v0.11.0		build 1			Added the gravelly mountains biome (then known as mutated extreme hills), where the surface is covered in several-block-deep layers of gravel.
v0.12.1		build 1			Gravel now generates in the Nether.
Pocket Edition
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			10 gravel can now be used to trade with fletcher villagers for 6-10 flint.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Gravel is now used to craft concrete powder.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Gravel can now be used to craft coarse dirt.
1.4.0		beta 1.2.20.1			Gravel now generates in ocean ruins.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of gravel has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Trading has been changed, fletcher villagers now have a 50% chance to buy 10 gravel and one emerald for 10 flint as part of their first tier trade.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Gravel now has a ¹⁰⁄₁₀₆ (9.43%) chance of being given by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 8–16, making it renewable.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Gravel now generates below lava sea layer in the Nether.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added gravel.
TU3					The texture of gravel has been changed.
TU9					The texture of gravel has been changed, again.
		1.90			The texture of gravel has been changed, once again.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added gravel.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Gravel" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Explosions launch falling gravel.
If a player stands on a stack of sand or gravel, and the stack falls onto a non-solid block, the player falls fast enough to take damage or even die.
Gravel often falls into caves, making a mock dead end. If a player encounters a gravel dead-end while mining, removing the gravel may reveal additional passageways.

Gallery[]

A naturally generated gravel patch as seen in a cave.
A naturally generated gravel floor as seen in an ocean.
A gravel patch as seen in the Nether.
Gravel shown to be not affected by gravity if there is a non-solid block (except fire) underneath it.
Gravel floating in midair next to the gravelly mountains.
Naturally generated gravel in a cave.
Gravel hanging above the lava sea, without any support below. Viewed in Spectator mode.