HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S20°S
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
), and has an average height of about . The Andes extend from north to south through seven South American countries:
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, Colombia,
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
,
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, Bolivia,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. Along their length, the Andes are split into several ranges, separated by intermediate depressions. The Andes are the location of several high
plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
s—some of which host major cities such as Quito, Bogotá, Cali, Arequipa, Medellín,
Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 6 ...
, Sucre, Mérida,
El Alto El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estimat ...
and La Paz. The Altiplano plateau is the world's second-highest after the
Tibetan plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the ...
. These ranges are in turn grouped into three major divisions based on climate: the
Tropical Andes The Tropical Andes is northern of the three climate-delineated parts of the Andes, the others being the Dry Andes and the Wet Andes. The Tropical Andes' area spans . Geography and ecology file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions ...
, the
Dry Andes file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions of the Andes. The Dry Andes are shown in yellow. The Tropical Andes are shown in green and the Wet Andes in dark blue. The Dry Andes ( es, Andes áridos) is a climatic and glaciology, glaciol ...
, and the Wet Andes. The Andes Mountains are the highest mountain range outside Asia. The highest mountain outside Asia, Argentina's Mount
Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere with a summi ...
, rises to an elevation of about above sea level. The
peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...
of
Chimborazo Chimborazo () is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 A.D. Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the Earth's surface from t ...
in the Ecuadorian Andes is farther from the Earth's center than any other location on the Earth's surface, due to the
equatorial bulge An equatorial bulge is a difference between the equatorial and polar diameters of a planet, due to the centrifugal force exerted by the rotation about the body's axis. A rotating body tends to form an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. On E ...
resulting from the Earth's rotation. The world's highest
volcano A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Ear ...
es are in the Andes, including
Ojos del Salado Nevado Ojos del Salado is a dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapping lava domes, ...
on the Chile-Argentina border, which rises to . The Andes are also part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (
cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly u ...
) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica.


Etymology

The etymology of the word ''Andes'' has been debated. The majority consensus is that it derives from the
Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...
word 'east'Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua–Spanish dictionary) as in '' Antisuyu'' (Quechua for 'east region'), one of the four regions of the
Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
. The term ''
cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly u ...
'' comes from the Spanish word ''cordel'' 'rope' and is used as a descriptive name for several contiguous sections of the Andes, as well as the entire Andean range, and the combined mountain chain along the western part of the North and South American continents.


Geography

The Andes can be divided into three sections: ; The Southern Andes: in Argentina and Chile, south of
Llullaillaco Llullaillaco () is a dormant stratovolcano at the border of Argentina (Salta Province) and Chile (Antofagasta Region). It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of tall volcanic peaks on a high plateau close to the Atacama Desert, one of the dri ...
. ; The Central Andes: in Peru and Bolivia. ; The Northern Andes: in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. In the northern part of the Andes, the separate
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...
range is often treated as part of the Northern Andes. The
Leeward Antilles The Leeward Antilles ( nl, Benedenwindse Eilanden) are a chain of islands in the Caribbean – specifically, the southerly islands of the Lesser Antilles (and, in turn, the Antilles and the West Indies) along the southeastern fringe of the C ...
islands Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, which lie in the
Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
off the coast of Venezuela, were formerly thought to represent the submerged peaks of the extreme northern edge of the Andes range, but ongoing geological studies indicate that such a simplification does not do justice to the complex tectonic boundary between the South American and Caribbean plates.


Geology

The Andes are a
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...
Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
orogenic Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted t ...
belt of mountains along the
Pacific Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
, a zone of
volcanic activity Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...
that encompasses the Pacific rim of the Americas as well as the Asia-Pacific region. The Andes are the result of
tectonic plate Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...
processes, caused by the subduction of
oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic ...
beneath the South American Plate. It is the result of a convergent plate boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate. The main cause of the rise of the Andes is the compression of the western rim of the South American Plate due to the subduction of the Nazca Plate and the
Antarctic Plate The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate containing the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and some remote islands in the Southern Ocean and other surrounding oceans. After breakup from Gondwana (the southern part of the superconti ...
. To the east, the Andes range is bounded by several
sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subside ...
s, such as Orinoco, Amazon Basin, Madre de Dios and
Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato ...
, that separate the Andes from the ancient
craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging an ...
s in eastern South America. In the south, the Andes share a long boundary with the former Patagonia Terrane. To the west, the Andes end at the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
, although the Peru-Chile trench can be considered their ultimate western limit. From a geographical approach, the Andes are considered to have their western boundaries marked by the appearance of coastal lowlands and a less rugged topography. The Andes Mountains also contain large quantities of iron ore located in many mountains within the range. The Andean orogen has a series of bends or
orocline An orocline — from the Greek words for "mountain" and "to bend" — is a bend or curvature of an orogenic (mountain building) belt imposed after it was formed. The term was introduced by S. Warren Carey in 1955 in a paper setting forth how comp ...
s. The Bolivian Orocline is a seaward concave bending in the coast of South America and the Andes Mountains at about 18° S. At this point, the orientation of the Andes turns from Northwest in
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
to South in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. The Andean segment north and south of the Orocline have been rotated 15° to 20° counter clockwise and clockwise respectively. The Bolivian Orocline area overlaps with the area of maximum width of the Altiplano Plateau and according to Isacks (1988) the Orocline is related to
crustal shortening Thrust tectonics or contractional tectonics is concerned with the structures formed by, and the tectonic processes associated with, the shortening and thickening of the crust or lithosphere. It is one of the three main types of tectonic regime, ...
. The specific point at 18° S where the coastline bends is known as the "Arica Elbow". Further south lies the Maipo Orocline a more subtle Orocline between 30° S and 38°S with a seaward-concave break in trend at 33° S. Near the southern tip of the Andes lies the Patagonian Orocline.


Orogeny

The western rim of the South American Plate has been the place of several pre-Andean orogenies since at least the late Proterozoic and early
Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
, when several
terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust (geology), crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and Accretion (geology), accreted or "Suture (geology), sutured" to crust lying on another pla ...
s and
microcontinent Continental crustal fragments, partly synonymous with microcontinents, are pieces of continents that have broken off from main continental masses to form distinct islands that are often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin. Caus ...
s collided and amalgamated with the ancient
craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging an ...
s of eastern South America, by then the South American part of Gondwana. The formation of the modern Andes began with the events of the
Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...
when
Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...
began the break up that resulted in developing several
rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...
s. The development continued through the
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
Period. It was during the
Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
Period that the Andes began to take their present form, by the uplifting,
faulting In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
and
folding Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure * Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Abov ...
of
sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
and
metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
rocks of the ancient cratons to the east. The rise of the Andes has not been constant, as different regions have had different degrees of tectonic stress, uplift, and
erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
. Tectonic forces above the subduction zone along the entire west coast of South America where the Nazca Plate and a part of the
Antarctic Plate The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate containing the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and some remote islands in the Southern Ocean and other surrounding oceans. After breakup from Gondwana (the southern part of the superconti ...
are sliding beneath the South American Plate continue to produce an ongoing orogenic event resulting in minor to major
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
s and
volcanic eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are oft ...
s to this day. In the extreme south, a major
transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduct ...
separates
Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...
from the small
Scotia Plate The Scotia Plate () is a Plate tectonics, tectonic plate on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Southern Ocean, Southern oceans. Thought to have formed during the early Eocene with the opening of the Drake Passage that separates ...
. Across the wide
Drake Passage The Drake Passage (referred to as Mar de Hoces Hoces Sea"in Spanish-speaking countries) is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atla ...
lie the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula south of the Scotia Plate which appear to be a continuation of the Andes chain. The regions immediately east of the Andes experience a series of changes resulting from the Andean orogeny. Parts of the Sunsás Orogen in
Amazonian craton The Amazonian Craton is a geologic province located in South America. It occupies a large portion of the central, north and eastern part of the continent and represents one of Earth's largest cratonic regions. The Guiana Shield and Central Braz ...
disappeared from the surface of earth being overridden by the Andes. The
Sierras de Córdoba The Sierras de Córdoba is a mountain range in central Argentina, located between the Pampas to the east and south and the Chaco to the north and east. Most of the range is located in Córdoba Province, except for the southwestern margin whic ...
, where the effects of the ancient
Pampean orogeny The Pampean orogeny ( es, orogenia pampeana) was an orogeny active in the Cambrian in the western margin of the ancient landmass of Gondwana. The orogen's remains can now be observed in central Argentina, in particular at the Sierras de Córdob ...
can be observed, owe their modern uplift and relief to the
Andean orogeny The Andean orogeny ( es, Orogenia andina) is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system alon ...
in the
Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
. Further south in southern
Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
the onset of the Andean orogeny caused the
Magallanes Basin The Magallanes Basin or Austral Basin is a major sedimentary basin in southern Patagonia. The basin covers a surface of about and has a NNW-SSE oriented shape. The basin is bounded to the west by the Andes mountains and is separated from the Malvi ...
to evolve from being an
extensional In any of several fields of study that treat the use of signs — for example, in linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, obj ...
back-arc basin in the
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...
to being a compressional foreland basin in the Cenozoic.


Volcanism

The Andes range has many active volcanoes distributed in four volcanic zones separated by areas of inactivity. The Andean volcanism is a result of subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South American Plate. The belt is subdivided into four main volcanic zones that are separated from each other by volcanic gaps. The volcanoes of the belt are diverse in terms of activity style, products and morphology. While some differences can be explained by which volcanic zone a volcano belongs to, there are significant differences inside volcanic zones and even between neighbouring volcanoes. Despite being a type location for
calc-alkalic The calc-alkaline magma series is one of two main subdivisions of the subalkaline magma series, the other subalkaline magma series being the tholeiitic series. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic mag ...
and subduction volcanism, the Andean Volcanic Belt has a large range of volcano-tectonic settings, such as rift systems and extensional zones, transpressional faults, subduction of
mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a diver ...
s and seamount chains apart from a large range of crustal thicknesses and
magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
ascent paths, and different amount of crustal assimilations.


Ore deposits and evaporates

The Andes Mountains host large
ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...
and
salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
deposits and some of their eastern
fold and thrust belt A fold and thrust belt (FTB) is a series of mountainous foothills adjacent to an orogenic belt, which forms due to contractional tectonics. Fold and thrust belts commonly form in the forelands adjacent to major orogens as deformation propagates o ...
acts as traps for commercially exploitable amounts of
hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
s. In the forelands of the
Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...
some of the largest
porphyry copper Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of ...
mineralizations occur making Chile and Peru the first- and second-largest exporters of
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
in the world. Porphyry copper in the western slopes of the Andes has been generated by
hydrothermal fluid Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...
s (mostly water) during the cooling of pluton (geology), plutons or volcanic systems. The porphyry mineralization further benefited from the dry climate that let them largely out of the disturbing actions of meteoric water. The dry climate in the central western Andes has also led to the creation of extensive Chile saltpeter, saltpeter deposits which were extensively mined until the invention of synthetic nitrates. Yet another result of the dry climate are the Dry lake, salars of Salar de Atacama, Atacama and Salar de Uyuni, Uyuni, the first one being the largest source of lithium today and the second the world's largest reserve of the element. Early Mesozoic and Neogene plutonism in Bolivia's Cordillera Central created the Bolivian tin belt as well as the famous, now depleted, deposits of Cerro Rico, Cerro Rico de Potosí.


History

The Andes Mountains, initially inhabited by hunter-gatherers, experienced the development of agriculture and rise of politically centralised Andean civilizations, civilizations, which culminated in the establishment of the century-long
Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
. This all changed in the 16th century, when the Spanish conquistadors colonized the mountains in the advance of the mining economy. In tide of anti-imperialist nationalism, the Andes became the scene of a Spanish American wars of independence, series of independence wars in the 19th century when rebel forces swept through the region to overthrow Spanish colonial rule. Since then, many former Spanish territories have become five independent Andean states.


Climate and hydrology

The climate in the Andes varies greatly depending on latitude, altitude, and proximity to the sea. Temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity decrease in higher elevations. The southern section is rainy and cool, the central section is dry. The northern Andes are typically rainy and warm, with an average temperature of in Colombia. The climate is known to change drastically in rather short distances. Rainforests exist just kilometres away from the snow-covered peak Cotopaxi. The mountains have a large effect on the temperatures of nearby areas. The snow line depends on the location. It is at between in the tropical Ecuadorian, Colombian, Venezuelan, and northern Peruvian Andes, rising to in the drier mountains of southern Peru south to northern Chile south to about 30th parallel south, 30°S before descending to on Aconcagua at 32nd parallel south, 32°S, at 40th parallel south, 40°S, at 50th parallel south, 50°S, and only in
Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...
at 55th parallel south, 55°S; from 50°S, several of the larger glaciers descend to sea level. The Andes of Chile and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
can be divided into two climatic and glaciological zones: the
Dry Andes file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions of the Andes. The Dry Andes are shown in yellow. The Tropical Andes are shown in green and the Wet Andes in dark blue. The Dry Andes ( es, Andes áridos) is a climatic and glaciology, glaciol ...
and the Wet Andes. Since the Dry Andes extend from the latitudes of
Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...
to the area of Maule River, precipitation is more sporadic and there are strong temperature oscillations. The line of equilibrium may shift drastically over short periods of time, leaving a whole glacier in the ablation area or in the Glacier ice accumulation, accumulation area. In the high Andes of Central Chile and Mendoza Province, rock glaciers are larger and more common than glaciers; this is due to the high exposure to solar radiation. In these regions glaciers occur typically at higher altitudes than rock glaciers. The lowest active rock glacier occur at 900 m a.s.l. in
Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere with a summi ...
. Though precipitation increases with the height, there are semiarid conditions in the nearly highest mountains of the Andes. This dry steppe climate is considered to be typical of the subtropical position at 32–34° S. The valley bottoms have no woods, just dwarf scrub. The largest glaciers, for example the Plomo glacier and the Horcones glaciers, do not even reach in length and have an only insignificant ice thickness. At glacial times, however, c. 20,000 years ago, the glaciers were over ten times longer. On the east side of this section of the Mendozina Andes, they flowed down to and on the west side to about above sea level.Kuhle, M. (2011): The High-Glacial (Last Glacial Maximum) Glacier Cover of the Aconcagua Group and Adjacent Massifs in the Mendoza Andes (South America) with a Closer Look at Further Empirical Evidence. Development in Quaternary Science, Vol. 15 (Quaternary Glaciation – Extent and Chronology, A Closer Look, Eds: Ehlers, J.; Gibbard, P.L.; Hughes, P.D.), 735–738. (Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam). The massifs of Cerro Aconcagua (), Cerro Tupungato () and Nevado Juncal () are tens of kilometres away from each other and were connected by a joint ice stream network. The Andes' dendritic glacier arms, i.e. components of valley glaciers, were up to long, over thick and overspanned a vertical distance of . The climatic glacier snowline (ELA) was lowered from to at glacial times.


Flora

The Andean region cuts across several natural region, natural and floristic regions, due to its extension, from Caribbean Venezuela to cold, windy and wet Cape Horn passing through the hyperarid Atacama Desert. Rainforests and Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, tropical dry forests used to encircle much of the northern Andes but are now greatly Deforestation, diminished, especially in the El Chocó, Chocó and inter-Andean valleys of Colombia. Opposite of the humid Andean slopes are the relatively dry Andean slopes in most of western Peru, Chile and Argentina. Along with several Interandean Valles, they are typically dominated by deciduous woodland, shrub and xeric vegetation, reaching the extreme in the slopes near the virtually lifeless Atacama Desert. About 30,000 species of vascular plants live in the Andes, with roughly half being endemism, endemic to the region, surpassing the diversity of any other Biodiversity hotspot, hotspot. The small tree ''Cinchona pubescens'', a source of quinine which is used to treat malaria, is found widely in the Andes as far south as Bolivia. Other important crops that originated from the Andes are tobacco and potatoes. The high-altitude ''Polylepis'' forests and woodlands are found in the Andean areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. These trees, by locals referred to as Queñua, Yagual and other names, can be found at altitudes of above sea level. It remains unclear if the patchy distribution of these forests and woodlands is natural, or the result of clearing which began during the Incan period. Regardless, in modern history, modern times the clearance has accelerated, and the trees are now considered to be highly endangered, with some believing that as little as 10% of the original woodland remains.


Fauna

The Andes are rich in fauna: With almost 1,000 species, of which roughly 2/3 are endemism, endemic to the region, the Andes are the most important region in the world for amphibians.Tropical Andes
– biodiversityhotspots.org
The diversity of animals in the Andes is high, with almost 600 species of mammals (13% endemic), more than 1,700 species of birds (about 1/3 endemic), more than 600 species of reptile (about 45% endemic), and almost 400 species of fish (about 1/3 endemic). The vicuña and guanaco can be found living in the Altiplano, while the closely related Domestication, domesticated llama and alpaca are widely kept by locals as pack animals and for their meat and wool. The crepuscular (active during dawn and dusk) chinchillas, two threatened members of the rodent order, inhabit the Andes' alpine regions.Eisenberg, J.F.; & Redford, K.H. (2000). ''Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 3: The Central Neotropics: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil.'' Eisenberg, J.F.; & Redford, K.H. (1992). ''Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 2: The Southern Cone: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay.'' The Andean condor, the largest bird of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, occurs throughout much of the Andes but generally in very low densities.Fjeldsaa, J.; & Krabbe, N. (1990). ''Birds of the High Andes: A Manual to the Birds of the Temperate Zone of the Andes and Patagonia, South America.'' Other animals found in the relatively open habitats of the high Andes include the Huemul (zoology), huemul, cougar, foxes in the genus ''Pseudalopex'', and, for birds, certain species of tinamous (notably members of the genus ''Nothoprocta''), Andean goose, giant coot, flamingos (mainly associated with hypersaline lakes), lesser rhea, Andean flicker, diademed sandpiper-plover, Geositta, miners, Phrygilus, sierra-finches and Diuca, diuca-finches. Lake Titicaca hosts several endemics, among them the highly endangered Titicaca flightless grebe and Titicaca water frog.Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani and Young, editors (2008). ''Threatened Amphibians of the World.'' A few species of hummingbirds, notably some Oreotrochilus, hillstars, can be seen at altitudes above , but far higher Species richness, diversities can be found at lower altitudes, especially in the humid Andean forests ("cloud forests") growing on slopes in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and far northwestern Argentina. These forest-types, which includes the Yungas and parts of the Chocó, are very rich in flora and fauna, although few large mammals exist, exceptions being the threatened mountain tapir, spectacled bear and yellow-tailed woolly monkey. Birds of humid Andean forests include mountain-toucans, quetzals and the Andean cock-of-the-rock, while mixed species flocks dominated by tanagers and furnariids commonly are seen – in contrast to several vocal but typically crypsis, cryptic species of wrens, tapaculos and antpittas. A number of species such as the royal cinclodes and white-browed tit-spinetail are associated with ''Polylepis'', and consequently also threatened.


Human activity

The Andes Mountains form a north–south axis of cultural influences. A long series of cultural development culminated in the expansion of the Inca civilization and
Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
in the central Andes during the 15th century. The Incas formed this civilization through imperialism, imperialistic militarism as well as careful and meticulous governmental management. The government sponsored the construction of Aqueduct (watercourse), aqueducts and roads in addition to preexisting installations. Some of these constructions are still in existence today. Devastated by European diseases and by Inca Civil War, civil war, the Incas were defeated in 1532 by an alliance composed of tens of thousands of allies from nations they had subjugated (e.g. Huanca people, Huancas, Chachapoyas culture, Chachapoyas, Cañaris) and a small army of 180 Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro. One of the few Inca sites the Spanish never found in their conquest was Machu Picchu, which lay hidden on a peak on the eastern edge of the Andes where they descend to the Amazon. The main surviving languages of the Andean peoples are those of the
Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...
and Aymara language families. Woodbine Parish and Joseph Barclay Pentland surveyed a large part of the Bolivian Andes from 1826 to 1827.


Cities

In modern times, the largest cities in the Andes are Bogotá, with a population of about eight million, Santiago, Medellín, Cali, and Quito. Lima is a coastal city adjacent to the Andes and is the largest city of all Andean countries. It is the seat of the Andean Community of Nations. La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government, is the highest capital city in the world, at an elevation of approximately . Parts of the La Paz conurbation, including the city of
El Alto El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estimat ...
, extend up to . Other cities in or near the Andes include Bariloche, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Catamarca, San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy, Mendoza, Argentina, Mendoza, Salta, Argentina, Salta, San Juan, Argentina, San Juan, and San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán in Argentina; Calama, Chile, Calama and Rancagua in Chile; Cochabamba, Oruro, Bolivia, Oruro, Potosí, Sucre, Sacaba, Tarija, and Yacuiba in Bolivia; Arequipa, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huancayo, Huánuco, Huaraz, Juliaca, and Puno in Peru; Ambato, Ecuador, Ambato, Cuenca, Ecuador, Cuenca, Ibarra, Ecuador, Ibarra, Latacunga, Loja, Ecuador, Loja, Riobamba and Tulcán in Ecuador; Armenia, Colombia, Armenia, Cúcuta,
Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and has the ninth-largest population in the country, with 6 ...
, Duitama, Ibagué, Ipiales, Manizales, Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Palmira, Pasto, Colombia, Pasto, Pereira, Colombia, Pereira, Popayán, Sogamoso, Tunja, and Villavicencio in Colombia; and Barquisimeto, La Grita, Mérida, San Cristóbal, Táchira, San Cristóbal, Tovar, Trujillo, Trujillo, Trujillo, and Valera in Venezuela. The cities of Caracas, Valencia, Carabobo, Valencia, and Maracay are in the Venezuelan Coastal Range, which is a debatable extension of the Andes at the northern extremity of South America.


Transportation

Cities and large towns are connected with asphalt-paved roads, while smaller towns are often connected by dirt roads, which may require a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The rough terrain has historically put the costs of building highways and railroads that cross the Andes out of reach of most neighboring countries, even with modern civil engineering practices. For example, the main crossover of the Andes between Argentina and Chile is still accomplished through the Paso Internacional Los Libertadores. Only recently the ends of some highways that came rather close to one another from the east and the west have been connected. Much of the transportation of passengers is done via aircraft. However, there is one railroad that connects Chile with Peru via the Andes, and there are others that make the same connection via southern Bolivia. See railroad maps of that region. There are multiple highways in Bolivia that cross the Andes. Some of these were built during a Chaco War, period of war between Bolivia and Paraguay, in order to transport Bolivian troops and their supplies to the war front in the lowlands of southeastern Bolivia and western Paraguay. For decades, Chile claimed ownership of land on the eastern side of the Andes. However, these claims were given up in about 1870 during the War of the Pacific between Chile and the allied Bolivia and Peru, in a diplomatic deal to keep Peru out of the war. The Chilean Army and Chilean Navy defeated the combined forces of Bolivia and Peru, and Chile took over Bolivia's only province on the Pacific Coast, some land from Peru that was returned to Peru decades later. Bolivia has been a completely landlocked country ever since. It mostly uses seaports in eastern Argentina and Uruguay for international trade because its diplomatic relations with Chile have been suspended since 1978. Because of the tortuous terrain in places, villages and towns in the mountains—to which travel via motorized vehicles is of little use—are still located in the high Andes of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. Locally, the relatives of the camel, the llama, and the alpaca continue to carry out important uses as pack animals, but this use has generally diminished in modern times. Donkeys, mules, and horses are also useful.


Agriculture

The ancient peoples of the Andes such as the Incas have practiced irrigation techniques for over 6,000 years. Because of the mountain slopes, Andén, terracing has been a common practice. Terracing, however, was only extensively employed after Incan imperial expansions to fuel their expanding realm. The potato holds a very important role as an internally consumed staple crop. Maize was also an important crop for these people, and was used for the production of chicha, important to Andean native people. Currently, tobacco, cotton and coffee are the main export crops. Coca, despite eradication programmes in some countries, remains an important crop for legal local use in a mildly stimulating herbal tea, and, both controversially and illegally, for the production of cocaine.


Irrigation

In unirrigated land, pasture is the most common type of land use. In the rainy season (summer), part of the rangeland is used for cropping (mainly potatoes, barley, broad beans and wheat). Irrigation is helpful in advancing the sowing data of the summer crops which guarantees an early yield in the period of food shortage. Also, by early sowing, maize can be cultivated higher up in the mountains (up to ). In addition, it makes cropping in the dry season (winter) possible and allows the cultivation of frost-resistant vegetable crops like onion and carrot.


Mining

The Andes rose to fame for their mineral wealth during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish conquest of South America. Although Andean Amerindian peoples crafted ceremonial jewelry of gold and other metals, the Mineralization (geology), mineralizations of the Andes were first mined on a large scale after the Spanish arrival. Potosí in present-day Bolivia and Cerro de Pasco in Peru were among the principal mines of the Spanish Empire in the New World. Río de la Plata and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
derive their names from the silver of Potosí. Currently, mining in the Andes of
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
places these countries as the first and second major producers of
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
in the world.
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
also contains the 4th largest goldmine in the world: the Yanacocha. The Bolivian Andes produce principally tin although historically silver mining had a huge impact on the Price revolution, economy of 17th century Europe. There is a long history of mining in the Andes, from the Spanish silver Mining, mines in Potosí in the 16th century to the vast current porphyry copper deposits of Chuquicamata and Escondida in Chile and Toquepala mine, Toquepala in Peru. Other metals including iron, gold, and tin in addition to non-metallic resources are important.


Peaks

This list contains some of the major peaks in the Andes mountain range. The highest peak is Aconcagua of Argentina (see below).


Argentina

*
Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere with a summi ...
, * Cerro Bonete, * Galán, * Mercedario, * Monte Pissis, Pissis,


Border between Argentina and Chile

* Cerro Bayo Complex, Cerro Bayo, * Cerro Fitz Roy, or 3,405 m,
Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
, also known as Cerro Chaltén * Cerro Escorial, * Cordón del Azufre, * Falso Azufre, * Incahuasi, * Lastarria, *
Llullaillaco Llullaillaco () is a dormant stratovolcano at the border of Argentina (Salta Province) and Chile (Antofagasta Region). It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of tall volcanic peaks on a high plateau close to the Atacama Desert, one of the dri ...
, * Maipo (volcano), Maipo, * Marmolejo, *
Ojos del Salado Nevado Ojos del Salado is a dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapping lava domes, ...
, * Olca, * Sierra Nevada de Lagunas Bravas, * Socompa, * Nevado Tres Cruces, (south summit) (III Region) * Tronador, * Tupungato, * Cerro del Nacimiento, Nacimiento,


Bolivia

* Janq'u Uma, * Cabaraya, * Chacaltaya, * Huayna Potosí, Wayna Potosí, * Illampu, * Illimani, * Macizo de Larancagua, Laram Q'awa, * Macizo de Pacuni, * Nevado Anallajsi, * Nevado Sajama, * Patilla Pata, * Tata Sabaya,


Border between Bolivia and Chile

* Acotango, * Cerro Minchincha, Michincha, * Iru Phutunqu (Chile-Nor Lípez), Iru Phutunqu, * Licancabur, * Olca, * Parinacota Volcano, Parinacota, * Paruma, * Pomerape,


Chile

* Monte San Valentin, * Cordillera del Paine, Cerro Paine Grande, * Cerro Macá, c. * Monte Darwin, c. * Volcan Hudson, c. * Cerro Castillo Dynevor, c. * Mount Tarn, c. * Polleras, c. * Acamarachi, c.


Colombia

* Nevado del Huila, * Nevado del Ruiz, * Nevado del Tolima, * Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Pico Pan de Azúcar, * Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Ritacuba Negro, * Cumbal Volcano, Nevado del Cumbal, * Cerro Negro de Mayasquer, * Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Ritacuba Blanco, * Nevado del Quindío, * Puracé, * Santa Isabel (volcano), Santa Isabel, * Doña Juana, * Galeras, * Azufral,


Ecuador

* Antisana, * Cayambe (volcano), Cayambe, * Chiles (volcano), Chiles, *
Chimborazo Chimborazo () is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 A.D. Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the Earth's surface from t ...
, * Corazón (volcano), Corazón, * Cotopaxi, * El Altar, * Illiniza, * Pichincha Volcano, Pichincha, * Quilotoa, * Reventador, * Sangay, * Tungurahua,


Peru

* Alpamayo, * Artesonraju, * Carnicero, * Chumpe, * Coropuna, * El Misti, * El Toro (Andes), El Toro, * Huandoy, * Huascarán, * Jirishanca, * Pumasillo, * Rasac, * Rondoy, * Sarapo, * Salcantay, * Seria Norte, * Siula Grande, * Huaytapallana, * Yerupaja, * Yerupaja Chico,


Venezuela

* Pico Bolívar, * Pico Humboldt, * Pico Bonpland, * Pico La Concha, * Pico Piedras Blancas, * Pico El Águila, * Pico El Toro * Pico El León * Pico Mucuñuque


See also

* ''Andean Geology''—a scientific journal * Andesite line * Apu (god) * Template:Mountain Passes of the Andes, Mountain passes of the Andes * List of mountain ranges


Notes


References

* * Biggar, J. (2005). ''The Andes: A Guide For Climbers''. 3rd. edition. Andes: Kirkcudbrightshire. * de Roy, T. (2005). ''The Andes: As the Condor Flies.'' Firefly books: Richmond Hill. * Fjeldså, J. & N. Krabbe (1990). ''The Birds of the High Andes.'' Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen: * Fjeldså, J. & M. Kessler (1996). ''Conserving the biological diversity of Polylepis woodlands of the highlands on Peru and Bolivia, a contribution to sustainable natural resource management in the Andes.'' NORDECO: Copenhagen.


Bibliography

* *


External links


University of Arizona: Andes geology



Discover-peru.org: Regions and Microclimates in the Andes


{{Authority control Andes, Mountain ranges of South America Ecology of the Andes, * Regions of South America Physiographic divisions