Oops: This is a long, rambling blog on Rain, the smell of rain (rain don't go away, please come back and refresh me tonight/today) - Kabuteng P.Ink K.'s Blog

Rain...I've always loved rain (for so many reasons I won't enumerate here anymore, suffice to say, I even incorporate the word & wordplay in several aspects of my life) and I think I'm not alone in loving the smell of rain as it first falls on the earth (especially after a very long period of dry weather). That comfy-cozy-just-makes-you-want-to-sleep kind of smell. 

I'm writing this blog since rain's been on my mind for the past few days--- not only because I want it to rain so bad, but also because of something that I read from a gradeschool classmate the other day. He was talking about how he loved the rain, and the significance of it, and I was able to relate to that so well. It did rain for a wee bit this evening, only for us to be enveloped by sticky heat yet again. Sighs...

Where was I? It was just about 3, hmm almost 4 years ago that I found out the English term for that rain-y smell? Over here, we call it alumuom. But in English, it's called petrichor.  Funnily enough, I 'discovered' the English word, not through research, but through the comments that I was reading on a youtube video of a cover song-- "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot" by Brand New-- its lyric included "you are the smell before rain"...a very touching song.

Anyhow let me ramble some more, since I feel like dillydallying and not doing the things which I really need to do. Have you ever wondered what causes that particular inhale-some-more-inducing (at least for me) smell? I stumbled upon a scientific explanation of how it was released and the sorta geeky side of me found the mechanism of it all so fascinating and interesting enough to share with you (up to you if you are interested enough to wade through this and read it).

The term "petrichor" was coined by Australian scientists Isabel Joy Bear and R.G. Thomas in 1964.  From the Greek  roots, "petra" meaning rock and "ichor" meaning the blood-like fluid of god in ancient myths. Their research as well as further studies indicate that these smells were released from the blend of certain airborne plant oils and compounds such as geosmin... I was also quite surprised to read that ozone played a part as well, and that it actually had an odor!

I also read this different article wherein researchers from Massachussetts Institute of Technology (headed by Cullen R. Buie and Youngsoo Joung) simulated rainfall and recorded drops of water falling on different types of soil via high speed cameras. They were able to observe that as raindrops hit the earth,  bubbles are formed within these droplets. These in turn release aerosols as they burst. They also discovered that there is a direct correlation between the amount of rain and the soil permeability, ie light to moderate rain creates more aerosols. Here's a video that explains it much better... Totally amazing! Wow!

If you read through all the above, thank you and I hope you learned something new, even a wee bit--- and let me add another youtube video here of a song-- I'd like to think of it as my sort-of anthem when I know/feel that it's going to rain-- I swear, more often than not, I burst out singing parts of this song, I know that could sound so silly... but I was smitten by this Randy Newman song eversince I watched "Beaches" as a kid. Well, I must admit, I only listened to the Randy Newman song this evening, I prefer Bette Midler's (sorry for any Randy Newman fans there, I'm going to even go further and say I wasn't familiar even with his songs prior to this, only by name, I feel ashamed. Sorry).  I know I spent a shameful amount of time writing this (doinnks, part of me even thought of delving through the water cycle, which might lead me to the Calvin cycle (yeah right!), which could in turn bring me to bicycles then icicles then further on to popsicles then to-- kidding!!!), and I have second thoughts of posting this but what the heck, here goes. If you did read this, thank you, and I hope you enjoy your morning/afternoon/night/dawn/ wherever you are.