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This article is about the mountain range in South America. For other uses, see Andes (disambiguation).
| Andes (Quechua: Anti(s/kuna)) | |
| Range | |
 | |
| Countries | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela |
|---|---|
| Cities | Bogotá, Santiago, Medellín, La Paz, Cali, Quito, Pasto, Bucaramanga, Arequipa, Mendoza, Cuenca, Cochabamba, Pereira, Ibagué, Salta, Manizales |
| Highest point | Mt. Aconcagua |
| - location | Las Heras Department, Mendoza, Argentina |
| - elevation | 6,962 m (22,841 ft) |
| - coordinates | 32°39′10″S 70°0′40″W / 32.65278°S 70.01111°W |
| Length | 7,000 km (4,350 mi) |
| Width | 500 km (311 mi) |
 Composite satellite image of the southern Andes | |
Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions. The Andes is the location of several high plateaux – some of which host major cities such as Quito, Bogotá, Arequipa, Medellín, Sucre, and La Paz.
The so-called Altiplano plateau is the world's second-highest plateau following the Tibetan plateau. The Andes extends to seven countries, in alphabetical order: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, some of which are known as the Andean States.
The Andes range is the world's highest mountain range outside of the continent of Asia. The highest peak, Mt. Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,962 m (22,841 ft) above sea level. The peak of Mt. Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is located at the point on the surface of the Earth that is the most distant one from its centre. This is because of the Earth's equatorial bulge that results from its rotation. The world's highest volcanos are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina frontier which rises to 6,893 m (22,615 ft), and over 50 other volcanos that rise above 6,000 m.
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[edit] Name
The etymology of the word Andes has been debated. The major consensus is that it derives from the Quechua word anti, which means "high crest". Others believe that Andes comes from Anti Suyu, one of the four regions of the Inca empire. It is more likely however that the word Antisuyo derives from the use of Anti to designate mountain chains. Derivation from the Spanish andén (in the sense of cultivation terrace) has also been proposed, yet considered very unlikely.[edit] Geography
I. The Southern Andes in Argentina and Chile;
II. The Central Andes, including the Chilean and Peruvian cordilleras and parts of Bolivia;
III. The Northern Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador that consists of two parallel ranges, the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. In Colombia, north its the border with Ecuador, the Andes split in three parallel ranges, the western, central, and eastern ranges. (The cordillera occidental, central, and oriental).
In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is often considered to be part of the Andes. The eastern range of Colombia is the only one that extends to Venezuela.[1] The term cordillera comes from the Spanish word meaning "cuerda", meaning "rope". The Andes range is about 200 km (124 mi) wide throughout its length, except in the Bolivian flexure where it is about 640 kilometres (398 mi) wide. The islands of the Dutch Caribbean Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, which lie in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela, were 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. [2]
[edit] Geology
| Geology of the Andes |
|---|
 |
| Orogenies |
| Pampean orogeny |
| Famatinian orogeny |
| Gondwanide orogeny |
| Andean orogeny |
| Fold-thrust belts |
| Central Andean | Patagonian |
| Batholiths |
| Peruvian Coastal | North Patagonian | South Patagonian |
| Subducted structures |
| Antarctic Plate | Carnegie Ridge | Chile Rise | Farallon Plate (formerly) | Juan Fernández Ridge | Nazca Plate | Nazca Ridge |
| Faults |
| Gastre | Liquiñe-Ofqui | Magallanes-Fagnano |
| Andean Volcanic Belt |
| Northern Zone| Peruvian flat-slab | Central Zone | Pampean flat-slab | Southern Zone | Patagonian Gap | Austral Zone |
| Paleogeographic terminology |
| Arequipa-Antofalla Terrane | Chilenia | Chiloé Block | Cuyania | Iapetus Ocean | Madre de Dios Terrane | Mejillonia | Pampia |
| |
 | This section requires expansion. |
[edit] Orogeny
The western rim of the South American Plate has been the place of several pre-Andean orogenies since at least the of the late Proterozoic and early Paleozoic when several terranes and microcontinents collided and amalgamated with the ancient cratons 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 when Pangea begun to break up and several rifts developed. It continued through the Jurassic Period. It was during the Cretaceous Period that the Andes began to take its present form, by the uplifting, faulting and folding of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks of the ancient cratons to the east. The rise of the Andes has not been constant and different regions have had different degrees of tectonic stress, uplift, and erosion.
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 are sliding beneath the South American Plate continue to produce an ongoing orogenic event resulting in minor to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to this day. In the extreme south a major transform fault separates Tierra del Fuego from the small Scotia Plate. Across the 1,000 km (620 mi) wide Drake Passage lie the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula south of the Scotia Plate which appear to be a continuation of the Andes chain.[citation needed]
[edit] Volcanism
Main article: Andean Volcanic Belt
