The earthy smell of rain is called petrichor. The word was first coined by two Australian scientists in 1964 to describe the mix of water with certain organic compounds that we can smell when it rains.
During research into the “argillaceous odour”- which is how the smell was previously referred to - Isabel Bear and Dick Thomas, scientists from the CSIRO science agency, discovered the substance responsible for the smell. It was a yellow oil secreted by plants and found on rocks and in the soil.
The word petrichor comes from the Greek word “petra”, which means stone, and “ichor”, which refers to the golden fluid that flows in the veins of the immortals in Greek mythology, Met Office reports.
