was heavily damaged because of the differential rise and fall of the land and the
resulting rending of gas lines, water mains, and sewer lines. Parts of southern
Alaska’s surface rose by 10 meters while other portions sunk by 3 m.
The world’s largest earthquake recorded by instrumentation was the Chilean
quake of 1960 measured at 9.5. There were over 2,000 fatalities and 2,000,000 home-
less and related tsunamis caused loss of life in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines.Economic Development, Geography of
Economic development, like all human social processes, has a geographic dimen-
sion. Geographers study the various spatial aspects of economic development at
everyscale. At the local level, geographers studying the developing world are inter-
ested in what factors may lead to apopulationexceeding itscarrying capacity,
potentially leading todesertificationor other problems.Sustainable development
is a key concept that many geographers now emphasize in their work. In developed
economies, the influence ofbreak-of-bulk pointsandagglomerationmay be the
focus of inquiry, along with many other spatial elements that play a role in develop-
ment. At the scale of theregion, economic geographers may study the effects of
capital leakage, a problem that is especially acute for developing countries. Global
economic relationships have been the concern of geographers for centuries, and
geographers have offered conceptual approaches to international trade flows with
theories likeWorld Systems Theory, comparative advantage, and many others.
Geographers are of course interested in the effects ofglobalizationon the spatial
distribution of development and wealth, and use a spectrum of methodologies
and theoretical tools to comparatively assess both the positive and negative impact
of globalization on the spatial relationships between developed and lesser-
developed countries. It is not just economic geographers who contribute to the
investigation of these quite complex relationships, but political geographers also
work on policy issues that often influence economic development, like trade policy
or the distribution of foreign aid. Cultural geographers may study thepush-pull
conceptdrivingmigration, yet another consideration in a quite complex and
multifaceted process.
A good deal of the geographic literature on economic development is directed
at explaining the spatial disparity between the developed world and lesser-
developed countries, or LDCs. The gulf in the quality of life between these two
regions is large and cannot be explained through uneven distribution of resources,
climate, or other simplistic notions. A majority of the human family lives on an
income of only about one U.S. dollar per day, but in developed countries average110 Economic Development, Geography of