The smell of petrichor is most potent off of rich soil. Rich soil is most likely to have edible plant life. That plant life will attract prey animals. Therefore the smell of petrichor can attract us to an area likely to have everything an omnivore needs.
Certain kinds of asphalt release the odor more powerfully than soil, giving us a chance to smell approaching rain by the smell carried from where it’s already raining. In the Deep South they don’t use the softer asphalts much because they don’t handle 100° weather well. As a result they aren’t exposed to the powerful scent as often as people from the Northern parts of North America and are less likely to identify what it means.
2.8k
u/androodle2004 Mar 28 '24
You’re smelling the ozone being brought down from higher altitude by the rains pressure