The Andes mountain range is located in South America, extending from the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, and is the second-highest mountain range in the world, after the Himalayas. The Andes are also known as the South American Cordillera.
These mountains cover parts of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The Andes chain is connected from Venezuela under the Caribbean Sea by the mountains of the West Indies (Antilles). Spurs reaching from Colombia extend into Panama and beyond through Mexico, joining with the Rocky Mountain range in North America. South of Tierra del Fuego at the extreme southern tip of South America, the chain continues under the Drake Passage to Antarctica.
This mountain range has a number of peaks over the 20,000 foot elevation, the highest peak being Aconcagua in Argentina near the border of Chile at 22,834 feet (6,960 meters) above sea level. Nine other peaks reach 22,200 feet (6,706 meters), and more than twelve peaks reach 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) above sea level.
The Andes mountain range is not as young as the Himalayas, but is younger than some of the other major mountain ranges in the world. It is thought that they originated partly in the Cenozoic and partly in the Mezozoic eras. Their origin relates to the coming together of two crustal plates, the oceanic plate (Nazca) and a continental plate, the South American plate.
Unlike the Himalayas’ highest peaks, none of which are of volcanic origin, the Andes’ highest peaks are volcanic in origin, an example being Cotopaxi in Ecuador, whose height is 19,700 feet (6,003 meters) above sea level.
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