"Crack in the World" & "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"

In what turned out to be our golden years, Mike and I walked many miles together, usually to look at different geological formations. As we walked Mike often spoke of Summers spent hiking the Cascade Mountains with his Uncle Harlan. Mike had a deep respect for his uncle who inspired in Mike a lifelong interest in the Earth sciences. Somewhere I think I have a photo of Mike or me standing by the fault in Dixie Valley. I could not find the photo and think maybe it is just a memory I have of standing there. It is not a sight I will forget for it is hard to imagine the force that made that rip in the Earth.
Mike loved watching disaster movies. The recent round of Earthquakes here inspired me to watch his:
“Crack in the World” with Dana Andrews, Janette Scott and Kieron Moore
and “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”a British movie with Janet Munro, Leo McKern and Edward Judd.
These movies and more like them, were obviously inspired by fears of nuclear testing and nuclear on-purpose. I think it is interesting that in each of these movies the fix for the problems caused by nuclear explosions is BIGGER nuclear explosions!!
As I sometimes do when watching British movies, I needed subtitles for “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”. This movie did not have them and I suspect I missed some things. A series of disasters are precipitated by nuclear tests: sunspots, worldwide flooding, an unscheduled eclipse, high temperatures, a fog bank four stories high, cyclone force winds, fires, a shift in the Earth’s axis and last but not least the Earth begins moving toward the Sun. But no matter how bad things got the people had plenty of Coca Cola on hand. Water and shelter were iffy but no one seemed much concerned about that. More bombs are needed.

“The Crack in the World” is a mad scientist type movie. In an attempt to create some kind of geothermal power source, a hole is blasted into the Earth’s crust. Somehow the energy in the resulting lava flow was to be harnessed. Best not to think about that much. Just, you know, eat your popcorn.
Naturally this attempt goes horribly wrong. More bombs are needed. Dana Andrews, the mad Dr. Steven Sorenson appears to be doomed for any number of reasons. Not a problem for his wife Janette Scott as Maggie. She has a very special disaster preparedness kit: Kieron Moore as Dr. Ted Rampion. Never leave home without a spare honey. All is well, and ended, well, it ended. A strategically clad Maggie and her man of the moment watch a new moon rise together.

Yeah, I know, still need to assemble the missing stuff from my own very basic disaster kit. On the bright side, that was about four hours spent not thinking about Dixie Valley.