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Renewable Sand Inspired by Real Geology and Renewable Energy

Renewable sand is a common request. I hope you will consider this new approach, inspired by real world geology and renewable energy.

Real-World Inspiration: Geothermal Silica

Geothermal energy works by pumping water deep into the Earth to be heated by geological sources, then using the hot water to drive turbines. However, when the water comes back up it is filled with dissolved minerals, like silica. See this research article showing how this is being developed as a source of renewable silica.

The Minecraft Proposal: 

The nearest thing we have in MC to geothermal wells is magma bubble columns. 

Imagine a magma bubble column. If (and only if) the wall block is obsidian, over time a new "silica scale" block will occasionally appear on the inside of the bubble column, stuck to the walls. It would start just above the magma block, and slowly grow up the column. Waterlogged silica scale would act as a bubble column with no hitbox (movement unaffected).

Picture Resin Clumps, but growing upwards like vines in a bubble column. Harvest with shovels, or pushing with pistons. Affected by Fortune. 2x2 craft into sand, 3x3 craft for a new light blue "silica block", or smelt it into bricks for new light blue bricks.

HOWEVER: It would only form when the wall is obsidian. Why? Obsidian can't be moved by pistons, so players cant simply break silica off with wall-shifting; players will need to design new farm solutions. This creates an overworld-friendly, peaceful, manual-or-machine source of sand.

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• December 18, 2025 20:48
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  • December 18, 2025 21:01
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  A continuation: There's a lot of design decisions for this, which I wanted to chat about. For example:

  • is there multiple stages to it's growth? Maybe it has 2 stages, where stage 1 has a low chance to drop anything, and stage 2 is a guaranteed drop plus 25%.  
  • Does it attach to more than one side? imagine if all four walls of a bubble column could have scale grow on them as 4 independent clumps: suddenly, manually harvesting in a narrow column is very advantageous with 4x the growing surface, compared to an automated system (which most likely would use flat walls, instead of narrow channels); however, this may be a logistical nightmare to code.
  • Once harvested, should the silica scale be placeable, like resin clumps? If so, will it have special properties, or just be decoration?

  I had this idea earlier today, and I can really clearly see ways to build it to the level of complexity the devs would want.  Critically, by forcing it to grow only on the obsidian, we create a situation where there is no clear optimal farming solution, only trade-offs, making it very engaging and scaleable.

  There is also a lovely symmetry. Water, Lava, cobble, smoothstone, and obsidian are joined through their spatial arrangement. Basalt generators expanded on this with blue ice and soul soil. Magma and water already do something special; here I am proposing building on that, by bringing one of the classic materials back into the mix. Large amounts of obsidian are a challenge, but possible. This would create a new challenge that feels "classic".