Minecraft wiki entry for Chunk_format, associated text: Tile Ticks represent block updates that need to happen because they could not happen before the chunk was saved. Examples reasons for tile ticks include redstone circuits needing to continue updating, water and lava that should continue flowing, recently placed sand or gravel that should fall, etc. Tile ticks are not used for purposes such as leaf decay, where the decay information is stored in the leaf block data values and handled by Minecraft when the chunk loads. For map makers, tile ticks can be used to update blocks after a period of time has passed with the chunk loaded into memory.