"Crack in the World" was undoubtedly inspired by Project Mohole in the 1960s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mohole). The story is complete
with tension between colleagues and has impressive special effects for their time. The gravity-defying finish is awesome. This is one of my all-time favourites, in part, because all the action takes place in the southern hemisphere!
Update 2023: Novelist John Steinbeck was an amateur oceanographer. He visited the first stage drilling platform for Project Mohole and wrote about it for Life magazine: https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=9lEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA110&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false.