Petrichor: an Earthy Aroma Showering Nature's Love for Mankind
Nature – A gift from God to all humanity and a necessity which makes our world beautiful with a spectacular look…showering rain as a love needed to grow crops and plants.
Rain is a grace were sky condescending with the earth giving a pleasant, earthy scent known as "Petrichor" that accompanies a storm's first raindrops. It reduces stress and raises mood up to 60%. It posses a soothing psychological effect which relaxes the brain.
What makes rain smell so lovely? There are several scents associated with rainfall that people find pleasing, and some scientists believe that people inherited their affection for the scent of rain from ancestors who relied on rainy weather for their survival.
"petrichor," the term was coined in 1964 by two Australian scientists studying the smells of wet weather — is derived from a pair of chemical reactions.
Petrichor is a combination of fragrant chemical compounds from oils made by plants, decaying organic matter and many more, but the main contributor to petrichor are actinobacteria – tiny microorganisms found in rural and urban areas as well as in marine environments. Through decomposition as a by-product, they produce an organic compound called geosmin, which contributes to the petrichor scent.
When raindrops touch the grounds, especially porous surfaces such as loose soil or rough concrete, they will splatter and eject tiny particles called aerosols. The geosmin and other petrichor compounds that may be present on the ground or dissolved within the raindrop are released in aerosol form and carried by the wind to surrounding areas.
The rain smell comes from volatile oils that plants and trees release too. The oil gets collected on surfaces such as rocks when rain reacts with the oil on the rocks and carries it as a gas through the air. This scent is like the bacteria spores in that most people consider it a pleasant, fresh smell.
The petrichor scent can travel rapidly downwind in heavy rain and alert people that rain is soon on the way and gives a soothing happy feeling to the Phulviophiles.
The scent eventually goes away after the rain showering stops, and the ground begins to dry. This leaves the actinobacteria lying in soil waits – ready to help us know when it might rain again, giving a beautiful smell to welcome rain again.