10,000-Year Clock To Be Built Inside West Texas Mountain Range

This clock under construction inside a series of caves made inside a mountain in the West Texas Sierra Diablo mountain range proves that things really are bigger in Texas. The clock is designed to keep time for the next ten thousand years. It won't be complete for many years to come, but when it is finished, it will be so awesome. The clock is apparently being designed so that the small hand moves only once per year, the larger hand moves once per century, and the thing will ring in the millennium with a special chime.

People will be able to visit the clock and will enter via the rugged cave you see here. You can see in the photos of the giant silver colored gear just how large the clock will be. The design of the clock will allow it to make a different bell ringing sequence each day for the next 10,000 years. The construction team is carving five chambers into the mountain to celebrate certain anniversaries of the clock. The chambers will be for the 1-year, 10-year, 100-year, 1000-year, and 10,000 year anniversaries. The one-year chamber has inside a special orrery that highlights humankind's first century in space.

The clock will activate and run the special orrery once per year on a pre-determined date at solar noon. The team will build the animations for the fist and tenth anniversaries, but will leave the 100, 1,000, and 10,000 for future generations to decide. The build team will provide the mechanical interface into the chambers that will provide the future builders with power and the correct clock triggering events. How awesome is this project?

[via 10,000 Year Clock]