The Night the World Exploded

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The Night the World Exploded
Directed by	Fred F. Sears
Written by	Jack Natteford Luci Ward
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Corp.
Release date(s)	June 1957
Country	United States
Language	English

The Night the World Exploded is a 1957 science fiction film. The film was written by Jack Natteford and Luci Ward and directed by Fred F. Sears for producer Sam Katzman.

The plot synopsis consists of a story concerning a two-man, one-woman scientific team which has built a machine which can predict earthquakes. After predicting one will hit California, USA within the next 24hrs. to a uniformly skeptical state-level political and civil defense body, the earthquake does materialize and does immense damage to northern parts of the state. Now with the support and funding necessary from the reformed skeptics, the team works on further prediction and comes to the conclusion that a wave of earthquakes are pending in and around the southwestern United States. They trace the epicenter of the pending disaster to an area beneath the Carlsbad Caverns and descend to a hitherto unexplored level. Here they find a strange ore which, when placed in contact with water, becomes highly explosive, and realize that this element is responsible for the earthquakes. As each explosion or quake increases the flow of surface water to the underground "lair" of this element, the team must now turn its attentions to finding a means of not only preventing imminent earthquakes, but also neutralizing the element against inevitable future contact with water.