There’s a name for the smell of rain, too: “petrichor,” a poetic portmanteau of the Greek words “petros” (stone) and “ichor” (the blood of the gods in Greek mythology). Petrichor: the smell of rain. The compound was isolated a year after Bear and Thomas’s paper, and its name literally means “earth smell.” Along with another volatile organic compound called 2-methylisoborneol or 2-MIB, geosmin is primarily responsible for the characteristic smell of earth—and both contribute greatly to the smell of rain. It’s not just humans who appear to be able to rely on the scent of these volatile compounds to find water, Busby says. Busby says this might also explain why the smell of rain is strongest when it comes from rain hitting dry soil.