SB-0013

SmellBook editorialCULTURALUpdated 2026-09-22Revision 2

Soil

Earthy, damp and organic impressions associated with exposed ground and garden soil.

earthydampmineralorganic

ATLAS POSITION013 / 200

MILESTONEIconic 100

PRIMARY CATEGORYNature

PUBLIC TYPESource

PROFILE STATUScomplete

COLORDeep earth brown TEXTURELoose dark soil SOUNDSoft earth underfoot TEMPERATURECool

CULTURAL3associations / context

EXPERIMENTAL2nearby / prototype structure

VERIFIED1published source-backed claims

Source registry ↗

01SENSORY ASSOCIATIONSCULTURAL

Color: Deep earth brown
Texture: Loose dark soil
Temperature: Cool
Sound: Soft earth underfoot

02FEELS LIKECULTURAL

groundedcalmmemory

Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.

03CONTEXTCULTURAL

garden bedforest floorfreshly turned earth

04NEARBYEXPERIMENTAL

Early editorial relationships, not a live graph ranking.

05SCIENCE & SOURCESEXPERIMENTAL

VERIFIEDCLM-PETRICHOR-001 ↗

The scientific literature has used the term petrichor for the characteristic earthy odour associated with rain acting on dry mineral and soil environments.

Historical scientific framing of petrichor; this does not mean every rainy environment has one identical chemical profile.

VERIFIEDPRIMARY

Nature of Argillaceous Odour

I. J. Bear & R. G. Thomas

Nature

1964-03-07DOI 10.1038/201993a0

Registry record ↗External source ↗

WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS

One profile can belong to many routes.

These links are editorial navigation across the public atlas—not live graph scores.

Collections

Forest Orchard Meadow Forest Floor

Comparisons

Soil vs Wet Stone Moss vs Soil

Journeys

After Rain Forest Floor

Seasons

Spring

FROM SMELLBOOK STORIES

This smell also lives in stories.

Editorial pieces add place, memory and cultural context without changing the canonical profile.

EXPLAINER SERIES · 2026-09-24Why rain on pavement feels like a smell event

Rain changes the air, the ground and what nearby materials release. The result can feel bigger than any one smell identity.

Read ↗PLACE SERIES · 2026-09-16A city route after rain

Wet pavement, stone, soil pockets and cleaned air create a temporary version of the city that disappears as surfaces dry.

Read ↗

PROFILE NOTE

Soil can smell very different depending on moisture, vegetation and local material; this is a broad human-facing profile.

EDITORIAL REVISIONRevision 2

Added VERIFIED petrichor-related evidence provenance.

Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-09-22

EVIDENCE MATTERS

A profile can contain different kinds of knowledge.

SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See evidence coverage ↗