Under the grassy surface of the world in Minecraft, just one block down, you will encounter a layer of dirt. Most players simply dig through it with a shovel, eager to discover what lies beneath. However, today we are focusing on dirt, which is our Block of the Week.
As you might expect, dirt is among the oldest blocks in the game MCPE. It was introduced merely six days after development began on what was then known as “Cave Game,” alongside stone and wooden planks. Initially, the world consisted of cobblestones and grass blocks, but dirt was added to prevent grass from growing underground.
Over time, dirt has made its way into more areas of the game. During the Infdev phase of Minecraft development, both dirt and gravel began appearing in veins underground, and starting with Beta 1.8, they also appeared in villages. With version 1.11 – the exploration update – you can now even find it in woodland mansions in Minecraft PE.
However, I really don’t need to tell you where to find dirt, as you typically gather plenty of dirt blocks during regular gameplay. To avoid cluttering your chests with it, consider using it to fill terrain instead of digging it up when you want to smooth out an area in Minecraft Pocket Edition. Alternatively, create a farm to grow anything from saplings to beets. Or simply use dirt to build a makeshift hut for protection against zombies on your first night in a grand palace of mud with all the trendy downsides.
When exposed to light, grass will spread onto any adjacent dirt block – as we discussed when grass was our Block of the Week. But dirt has a rougher, less friendly cousin called “coarse dirt,” which will never become overgrown with grass under any circumstances. You can craft this by combining dirt with gravel in a 2×2 crafting grid or by specifically searching in Mega Taiga, Mesa, or Savannah biomes.
Outside of Minecraft Pocket Edition, dirt is commonly referred to as “soil,” formed from a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and millions of tiny living organisms. The process of soil formation is slow; it takes about 1,000 years to develop three centimeters of soil.
In Minecraft, there is only one type of dirt (two if you count coarse dirt), but real-world soils vary greatly across the globe. Different soils can have varying structures, densities, porosities, consistencies, temperatures, colors, and even electrical conductivities, depending on their composition.
Soil is more important than you might think. An ancient Chinese philosopher once wrote that humanity’s continued existence “depends entirely on the six inches of topsoil and what rains.” Without soil and rain, we would have no food, and without food, there would be no people. We also derive many medicines from soil, it can serve as a building material (it’s an excellent natural insulator), and in some places, it’s even used as fuel.
But there’s a problem – we are actually running out of soil, surprisingly quickly. Intensive, mechanized agriculture worldwide has degraded soil quality, leading to increasing amounts being washed away into rivers and seas. At the current rate of soil loss – around 30 football fields every minute – we have approximately 60 years left for farming.
The best course of action is to switch to organic farming – that’s the most obvious solution, but just in case, it might be wise to keep your chests stocked with dirt.
