
Precordillera is a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
geographical term for hills and mountains lying before a greater range, similar to
foothills
Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...
. The term is derived from ''cordillera'' (mountain range)—literally "pre-mountain range"—and applied usually to the
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
.
Some places usually called precordillera are:
*Andean mountains east of the main ranges of Andes in Argentina. It is separated from the much higher
Frontal Cordillera to the west by
Uspallata Valley in Argentina.
[ Precordillera mountains reach around 3,000 m a.s.l. in Sierras de Villavicencio.]
*Used all over Chile from north to south as a morphological unit lying just between the Andes and the Intermediate Depression
The Central Valley (), Intermediate Depression, or Longitudinal Valley is the depression between the Chilean Coastal Range and the Andes Mountains. The Chilean Central Valley extends from the border with Peru to Puerto Montt in southern Chile, wi ...
.
See also
* Geological history of the precordillera terrane
*
References
{{Geo-term-stub
Hills
Mountains
Geography of Argentina
Geography of Chile
Mountain geomorphology
Geography terminology