A sandstorm is nothing to scoff at, but the beauty in this time-lapse video of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico experiencing one that we saw on Gizmodo this morning will have you mesmerized over just how pretty something so dangerous can be.

SANDSTORM ALAMOGORDO from Harun Mehmedinovic on Vimeo.

The White Sands National Monument is a curious environment in New Mexico with deserts of gypsum sand that last through seasons and storms, and wow visitors with their natural majesty. Gypsum sand is highly soluble in water and thus it doesn’t tend to hang around in vast quantities in most environments. This part of New Mexico is so dry, though, that the fine grains of sand fill the vistas with pearly white dunes as far as the eye can see. The time-lapse video was shot by artists Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinovic as part of Project SKYGLOW. They are traveling and documenting places around North America in an effort to bring awareness to the growing threat of light pollution. As a resident of New York City, I live for these kinds of projects that remind me that there are places out there where you can actually see more than one or two stars in the sky on a clear, dark night.

Not only have Heffernan and Mehmedinovic captured a lovely portrait of the night sky as is their group’s mission, but they also caught a sandstorm of the fine grained gypsum sands in action. Have you ever seen something so solid look so much like water? I may just loop this video in the background of my computer all day. Take a few moments and relax on this first day of summer with some repeat viewings of this perfect dune-scape.

Featured Image: Project SKYGLOW