The peculiar smell immediately after a shower is due to certain volatile chemical compounds released by a group of soil-inhabiting bacteria called streptomycetes.
Streptomycetes, grouped as actinomycetes, are abundant in dry warm soil, a million of them can be detected in a gram of the soil. They release compounds such as geosmin and 2 methyl isoborneol when wetted by rain water after a long dry spell. That is why we get the musty odour only after the first rain of the rainy season. The smell can be felt in newly ploughed lands also.
Streptomycetes, grouped as actinomycetes, are abundant in dry warm soil, a million of them can be detected in a gram of the soil. They release compounds such as geosmin and 2 methyl isoborneol when wetted by rain water after a long dry spell. That is why we get the musty odour only after the first rain of the rainy season. The smell can be felt in newly ploughed lands also.
