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petrichor
noun
pe·tri·chor ˈpe-trə-ˌkȯr
: a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall especially when following a warm, dry period and that arises from a combination of volatile plant oils and geosmin released from the soil into the air and by ozone carried by downdrafts
“When the rain subsided, a tantalizing petrichor emanated from the forest floor.”
It poured rain the other evening. My dog cowered in our shower — she routinely seeks out a spot where plumbing can produce rain in order to avoid the terror of the real thing. But I savored the sound, following as it did weeks and weeks of relentless sun drying out my gardens and grass.
The next morning, as I walked along the river, now rushing where the day before it had been still, I savored the smell.
It’s a scent that marketers dream of reproducing, trying to convince us that they’ve bottled it by offering detergents called “After the Rain,” and “Summer Rain.”
Human noses are particularly sensitive to the scent of geosmin within petrichor and can detect it at concentrations as low as 0.4 parts per billion, perhaps because rain has been so essential for our survival.
Indeed, the second part of the word “petrichor” comes from the Greek ἰχώρ (ikhṓr), which refers to “the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.”
But leave it to musician and composer Jon Batiste to give us “Petrichor,” a song about one of Earth’s signature scents — and one that we’re losing by not tending her; a plea for action 20 years after Hurricane Katrina hit his hometown. “Too many chemicals,” he sings. “They’re burning the planet down.” He calls it “a warning set to a dance beat.”
Next time you get a whiff of petrichor, inhale deeply and let it settle deep in your body where you remember it’s the scent of the planet’s lifeblood and key to our survival.
