What's That I Smell?
Much to the relief of people around Wisconsin, rain has finally fallen to break this terrible drought! With it has come fresh green grass and flowers, along with something very familiar to us: the smell of rain . There's something in the air That smell of fresh fallen rain after an extremely dry couple of days is something so unique, it's hard to not recognize it. In fact, the smell is so unique that it even has it's own name: Petrichor , the smell of rain on dry earth. While we automatically associate this scent with rain, the rain is not what produces it. The smell is actually derived from an oil that is excreted by certain plants during a dry period. This oil is then absorbed by the surrounding soils and rocks. When it rains, this oil is released into the air along with Geosmin , thus producing the well-known aroma. What is Geosmin? Geosmin literally means "earth smell" and is an organic compound produced by several different kinds of microorganisms . This sce...