Is the sky on the ground? Prepared to be dazzled by the sight of the Grand Canyon filled with clouds! (Harun Mehmedinovic)
Time-lapse video (where long periods of time are shown in a matter of seconds or minutes) are an excellent way to show off the slow-motion beauty of nature. After all, nature is a place where things really take their time! This past Mother's Day, we celebrated with a time-lapse video of flowers blooming. Now we're back with an incredible video set in one of the greatest natural landmarks in the United States: the Grand Canyon.
Found in the state of Arizona, the Grand Canyon is HUGE. It is 446 km (277 mi.) long, up to 1,857 m (6,093 ft.) deep, and much as 29 km (18 mi.) wide. It was carved from the rocks over millions of years by what is now the Colorado River. This massive size attracts around 5 million visitors from around the world every year. On its own, it's pretty spectacular. See?
But occasionally it gets even more breathtaking.
Cotton Canyon
As we move up into the atmosphere, the air temperature usually cools. This is a big reason for the formation of clouds. Rising water vapour (or gas) cools into tiny droplets and collects into clouds high in the sky. So air close to the ground is warmer, air higher in the sky is colder. Easy, right? It happens over the Grand Canyon all the time.
But every once in a while, we get something called a surface inversion. This is when air close to the Earth's surface has cooled rapidly, but is trapped by a layer of warm air above it. Like a blanket or a lid! Now instead of that water vapour rising up into the sky, it stays near the surface and cools into... you guessed it! Clouds!
In many places, this will create fog—low-laying clouds of water vapour. But in a setting like the Grand Canyon, the visuals are far more awesome. It ends up looking like the entire canyon has become a lake of fluff! Are you ready to be transported to this fantasy world through the magic of time-lapse video?
Us, too! And thanks to the patience of filmmaker Harun Mehmedinovic, we can. Dive into the pillowy softness of his video released May 14, Kaibab Elegy, below...
SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM: KAIBAB ELEGY from Harun Mehmedinovic on Vimeo.
I think it is really cool that it looks like a desert one time and like an ocean the next.
It sounds cool but sadly the internet was not working 😥 😥 🙁 🙁 🙁
It’s so cool! I wish that I could say that I did that:
Me: Hey did you see that cool time-lapse of the Grand Canyon? I did it! 😀
Other people: Wow that’s so cool!
Wow yeah awesome