How to easily remove lava pools in Minecraft

Lava is a naturally generating liquid in Minecraft that is rarely found on the Overworld's surface, but is commonly present underground. The Nether realm, in particular, is filled with massive lava lakes and falls, since it is a hellish dimension. Dealing with this dangerous fluid can be life-threatening as it can easily burn you.

There might be a few reasons why you wish to remove lava pools and lakes from the Nether or the Overworld. If you want to build a mega structure in the Nether or simply require diamond ores that are hidden underneath lava, you will need to remove this liquid. Even though the methods to remove it are not easy, it can still be done.

This article reflects the personal views of the author.

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Methods to remove lava pools and lakes in Minecraft

Use sand or gravel blocks

By placing sand, you can remove the lava source blocks in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

One of the best ways to remove multiple lava source blocks in Minecraft is by placing sand over them. When sand blocks are placed on lava, they do not act as solid blocks. Instead, they are affected by gravity and fall until they hit a solid block at the bottom of the lava lake. If you place enough sand blocks on the same spot, each of them will replace one lava block below until the lava is completely gone.

This process can be easily repeated to remove an entire lava pool or lake. Although it is a tedious process, it's still used by many experienced players of the game. This technique can be automated with a complex flying machine that will drop sand blocks automatically and move around to cover the entire pool or lake. However, you will need to reconfigure it constantly to change its movements.

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Using buckets

Rinse and repeat lava bucket technique to slowly remove lava in Minecraft (Image via Reddit/u/Mexican-poo-poo-head)

This technique is even trickier than using sand blocks. You can manually remove each and every lava source block with the help of buckets. Fortunately, there is a trick where you can take a lava source block in a bucket, and then pour it on another lava source block. This will not create extra lava, instead it overwrites the block and remains the same.

This method will take even longer since you have to deal with every single lava block manually.

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Using commands

Fill command can be used to replace lava with air blocks in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

If you want to skip all of the heavy work that goes into removing lava and instantly do it, Minecraft commands are your best bet. To do this, you must enable cheats in your survival world in order to use commands.

Once cheats are enabled, use the '/fill' command that replaces blocks present in a particular region. Input the X, Y, and Z axes' values for both starting coordinates and ending coordinates, with 'air replace lava' at the end. This will instantly remove all the lava present in that given cubic area.

As shown above, the easiest way to remove lava is by toggling on cheats and using commands.