If you have a block that you’d prefer to avoid while working in the mining industry, it undoubtedly refers to lava. Lava can truly ruin an entire day of your work. However, if there are two blocks at play, we must cast our vote for the second one – gravel, which is merely a minor annoyance in the mine and serves as our weekly block in Minecraft PE.
Gravel has been part of Minecraft since May 2009, when it was introduced alongside other game essentials like sand, coal, and trees. Unlike these blocks, it primarily served a decorative purpose, often found in underground caves and mines, causing frustration for many players of Minecraft Pocket Edition. When you start digging a tunnel or excavating along coastlines or near bodies of water, you’ll likely encounter this block as well.
If you find yourself in need of a large quantity of gravel, you have three options. First, you can hunt for extreme hills biomes where significant deposits of gravel can be found. Second, you could venture into the Nether, where ample gravel exists at levels 63 and 65. Lastly, perhaps the simplest option is to dig or swim to the ocean floor, where gravel covers the surface in Minecraft PE.
As you’ve probably noticed, gravel behaves similarly to sand or anvils; it will fall if there’s nothing beneath it. If a block falls onto a crowd, a mob, or players, it can cause suffocation, as a person cannot withstand such weight until movement begins and someone attempts to dig out. However, if gravel lands on a torch, for instance, which isn’t a solid block, or on a ladder or fence, the effect differs. The block won’t break but will instead become an item.
This is particularly handy when dealing with large amounts of gravel and dirt underground. If you’re aware that digging blocks will lead to gravel collapsing, remember that placing a torch underneath the block allows the gravel to land safely, making it easy to collect what falls into your inventory.
While gravel in Minecraft is largely decorative, real-world gravel is incredibly useful. Globally, more roads are covered with gravel than concrete or asphalt. In Russia alone, over 400,000 kilometers of roads are gravel-covered. Moreover, gravel is a crucial ingredient in construction: it’s used to make concrete, tiles, to reduce slipperiness on icy roads during winter, in landscaping, and even in water filtration.
Fortunately, it’s quite easy to find. Gravel is ubiquitous in the real world, formed through erosion caused by water, weather, or ice breaking apart larger rocks into smaller pieces. Particularly large gravel deposits remain at the southern edges of glaciers that once covered the Northern Hemisphere during the last Ice Age, explaining why so many gravel pits exist in Canada and Northern and Central Europe.
So next time you walk down a path and hear the crunch of gravel underfoot, take a moment to consider its origins. Perhaps it was once part of a mighty mountain that crumbled into tiny fragments tens of thousands of years ago due to the relentless forces of the Ice Age. Maybe it was a rock shattered by waves during a winter storm. Or perhaps it was simply a boulder broken apart by human tools. Regardless, it’s pretty impressive! Especially in MCPE!
