The 500-million-year-old reason behind the unique scent of rain

New Atlas ^ | April 06, 2020 | Rich Haridy

[Kickass Conservative]

Is that the same stuff that went into the guys Ear Canal in Alien Covenant and infected him?

[C210N]

... form around particles, and therefore, the snow are forming around dust/dirt/pollutants in the air, and pulling them down to the ground.

The same is true of rain. Moisture abounds in the air as invisible humidity (except perhaps Phoenix). Moisture abounding in the air surrounding dust/dirt/pollutants as visible clouds (including Phoenix).

[rx]

"bacteria trying"
"otherwise [bacteria] wouldn’t do it"

Wow, the tendentious, unsusbstantiated anthropomorphisms behind this author's writing!

[wildcard_redneck]

“Nothing better than the smell of sage after a rainstorm in the desert.”

I grew up in southeastern Montana and I love that smell as well.

[Farmerbob]

I saw this a few years ago in a science cartoon I was playing for my son.

[tiki]

I live in the desert where it rarely rains and the day after a rain EVERYTHING emerges and the land is full of insects and frogs and toads. Cacti bloom overnight and things you thought were dead come to life.

[catnipman]

“The 500-million-year-old reason behind the unique scent of rain”

i bet the scent of a woman is even older ...

[rightwingcrazy]

“i bet the scent of a woman is even older ...”

She’d be a bit ripe by now, I think.

[GBA]

Cool to know; thanks for posting!

For me, that’s one of the greatest things about living in the Sonoran desert. I love and miss the smell of the desert after that first rain.

[dainbramaged]

How does the smell compare after rain out in the middle of the ocean versus on land?
I've been maybe 200 miles offshore and rain doesn't seen to give off that earthy odor that one smells on land.

[gnarledmaw]

I cant answer that. I do know that I used to live across the street from a cone factory. The first snow really seemed to intensify the vanilla. The next morning the whole world looked and smelled like a giant bowl of ice cream.

[PGR88]

The first snow really seemed to intensify the vanilla. The next morning the whole world looked and smelled like a giant bowl of ice cream.

That’s interesting! I don’t doubt your observation - I bet there is some scientific reason which supports it.

[gnarledmaw]

I wasnt there so I suppose that smell of ozone could have been there also but ozone has a very distinctly different smell.

[Magic Fingers]

“Nothing better than the smell of sage after a rainstorm in the desert.”

Agreed (from the Sonoran...)

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

In fact, the prevailing theory now is that the oceans were formed from the water that had been inside the earth previously.

It’ s in the Bible: Genesis 7:11 (KJV) “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

[P-Marlowe]

Where I am, the smell is the sagebrush. Never been a mystery to me.

[SuperLuminal]

Oh Oh! It’s a geosmin pandemic... Shut everything down... Pass another multi-trillion-dollar stimulus bribe fund...

[BereanBrain]

I know that....but non-believers think the genesis account is myth.
It is pure truth, explained to the limited minds that we are.

[ElkGroveDan]

They should add it to air fresheners and room scents.

[Fred Nerks]

I would love it even if it smelled like skunk. In Australia we can’t afford to be fussy.