Portal:Andes

The llama (/ˈlɑːmə/; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈʎama] or [ˈʝama]) (Lama glama) is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era.

Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft and contains only a small amount of lanolin. Llamas can learn simple tasks after a few repetitions. When using a pack, they can carry about 25 to 30% of their body weight for 8 to 13 km (5–8 miles). The name llama (also historically spelled "lama" or "glama") was adopted by European settlers from native Peruvians. (Full article...)

The Andean Volcanic Belt is a major volcanic belt along the Andean cordillera in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is formed as 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 which are separated 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 within volcanic zones and even between neighboring volcanoes. Despite being a type location for calc-alkalic and subduction volcanism, the Andean Volcanic Belt has a broad range of volcano-tectonic settings, as it has rift systems and extensional zones, transpressional faults, subduction of mid-ocean ridges and seamount chains as well as a large range of crustal thicknesses and magma ascent paths and different amounts of crustal assimilations.

Romeral in Colombia is the northernmost active member of the Andean Volcanic Belt. South of latitude 49° S within the Austral Volcanic Zone volcanic activity decreases with the southernmost volcano Fueguino in Tierra del Fuego archipelago. (Full article...)

Parinacota (in Hispanicized spelling), Parina Quta or Parinaquta is a dormant stratovolcano on the border of Bolivia and Chile. Together with Pomerape it forms the Nevados de Payachata volcanic chain. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, its summit reaches an elevation of 6,380 metres (20,930 ft) above sea level. The symmetrical cone is capped by a summit crater with widths of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) or 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). Farther down on the southern slopes lie three parasitic centres known as the Ajata cones. These cones have generated lava flows. The volcano overlies a platform formed by lava domes and andesitic lava flows.

The volcano started growing during the Pleistocene and formed a large cone. At some point between the Pleistocene and the Holocene, the western flank of the volcano collapsed, generating a giant landslide that spread west and formed a large, hummocky landslide deposit. The avalanche crossed and dammed a previously existing drainage, impounding or enlarging Lake Chungará; numerous other lakes now forming the headwaters of the Rio Lauca sprang up within the deposit. Volcanic activity rebuilt the cone after the collapse, cancelling out the collapse scar. (Full article...)

Misti is a volcano in the southern Peruvian Andes, rising above Arequipa, Peru’s second-largest city. It has a steep conical profile and two nested summit craters. The inner crater contains an active lava plug or dome, cut by vents that emit volcanic gases. The summit reaches 5,822 metres (19,101 ft) above sea level, on the rim of the outer crater. Snow covers the summit but does not persist; there are no glaciers. The upper slopes are largely barren, while lower elevations support scrub and other bushy vegetation.

Misti grew in four stages. Each stage built the mountain with lava flows and domes, then ended with a summit collapse that formed a bowl-shaped depression. Misti forms a local volcanic group with Chachani to the northwest and Pichu Pichu to the southeast, built on debris from older volcanoes. Numerous intense explosive eruptions took place during the last 50,000 years and covered the surrounding terrain with tephra (rocks fragmented by volcanic eruptions). The last two significant eruptions were 2,000 years ago and in 1440–1470 AD; since then, periods of increased gas release have sometimes been reported as eruptions (Full article...)

El Altar or Capac Urcu (possibly from Kichwa kapak principal, great, important / magnificence, urku mountain) is an extinct volcano on the western side of Sangay National Park in Ecuador, 170 km (110 mi) south of Quito, with a highest point of 5,319 m (17,451 ft). Spaniards named it so because it resembled two nuns and four friars listening to a bishop around a church altar. In older English sources it is also called The Altar. (Full article...)

Monte Pissis is an extinct volcano on the border of the La Rioja and Catamarca provinces in Argentina, 25 km (16 mi) to the east of the Chilean border and about 550 km (340 mi) north of Aconcagua. The mountain is the second-tallest volcano in the world and the third-highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.
Monte Pissis is named after Pedro José Amadeo Pissis, a French geologist who worked for the Chilean government.
Due to its location in the Atacama Desert, the mountain has very dry conditions but features an extensive glacier, with crevasses, which is unique in the region. The peak is the highest summit on Earth without a permanent glacier. (Full article...)

Laram Q'awa (Aymara larama blue, q'awa little river, ditch, crevice, fissure, gap in the earth, "blue brook" or "blue ravine", Hispanicized spellings Laram Khaua, Larancagua) is a 5,182-metre-high (17,001 ft) mountain in the Andes. According to the Bolivian IGM map 1:50,000 'Nevados Payachata Hoja 5739-I' it is situated on Bolivian terrain in the La Paz Department, Pacajes Province (Charaña Municipality), at the border with Chile. It lies north-west of the mountains Kunturiri, Phaq'u Q'awa and another mountain on the border named Laram Q'awa (Laram Khaua). One of three different rivers of this area called Kunturiri (Condoriri) originates north-east of the mountain near Phaq'u Q'awa. It flows in a bow along the northern slopes of Laram Q'awa towards Chile. (Full article...)

Los Nevados National Natural Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados) is a national park located in the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes. The park features Colombia's highest and northernmost active volcanoes including the glacier-capped Nevado del Ruiz, Nevado del Tolima, and Nevado de Santa Isabel, and the formerly glaciated superpáramo peaks (paramillos) of Cisne, Santa Rosa and Quindío. Other elevated structures of volcanic origin within the park are Alto La Piraña, La Olleta, Cerro España, and the Peñas de Caracoli. Cerro Bravo and Cerro Machín are located outside the park but form part of the same volcanic region.

The park is located in the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and spans between the municipalities Manizales, Villamaría, Santa Rosa de Cabal, Pereira, Salento, Villahermosa, Anzoátegui, Santa Isabel, Murillo, Ibagué and Casabianca. (Full article...)

Pico Bonpland is Venezuela's fourth-highest peak, at 4,883 metres above sea level. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes of (Mérida State). The peak with its sister peak Pico Humboldt, and the surrounding páramos are protected by the Sierra Nevada National Park. The name of the peak is in honor of Aimé Bonpland, although he never visited the Venezuelan Andes.

The glaciers located in the Bonpland were the result from Merida glaciation in the Pleistocene. By 2011 they had all disappeared. (Full article...)

Chinchilla is a genus consisting of two species (Chinchilla chinchilla and Chinchilla lanigera) of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha, native to the Andes Mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "herds" at high elevations up to 4,270 m (14,000 ft). Historically, chinchillas lived in an area that included parts of Bolivia, Peru and Chile, but today, colonies in the wild are known only in Chile. Along with their relatives, viscachas, they make up the family Chinchillidae. They are also related to the chinchilla rat.

Chinchillas have the densest fur of all extant terrestrial mammals, with around 20,000 hairs per square centimeter and 50 hairs growing from each follicle. The chinchilla is named after the Chincha people of the Andes, who once wore its dense, velvet-like fur and ate their meat. By the end of the 19th century, chinchillas had become quite rare after being hunted for their notably soft fur. Most chinchillas currently used by the fur industry for clothing and other accessories are farm-raised. Domestic chinchillas descended from C. lanigera are sometimes kept as pets, and may be considered a type of pocket pet. (Full article...)

The Andean avocet (Recurvirostra andina) is a large wader in the avocet and stilt bird family, Recurvirostridae. It is resident in the Andes, breeding above 3500 m in northwestern Argentina, western Bolivia, northern Chile and southern Peru. (Full article...)

Sierra Nevada, also known as Sierra Nevada de Lagunas Bravas, is a major ignimbrite-lava dome complex which lies in both Chile and Argentina in one of the most remote parts of the Central Andes.

Activity in the complex started in Argentina and formed two stratovolcanoes. Later, 12 or more vents formed, some with craters up to 400 metres (1,300 ft) wide. Lava flows up to 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long with flow ridges are also found. It covers a total area of 225 km². Radiometric dating has yielded ages of 1.7 ± 0.4 to 0.431 ± 0.012 million years ago, a lava flow from the neighbouring Azufrera Los Cuyanos volcano that is sometimes considered part of Sierra Nevada is 140,000 years old. Together with Cerro el Condor and Peinado it forms the Culampaja line, a line of volcanoes that reaches Cerro Blanco. Strong seismic attenuation is observed beneath Sierra Nevada. Hydrothermally altered rocks in Sierra Nevada may be the source of sulfate and arsenic in the Juncalito and Negro rivers, and heat sources for regional hot springs. The snowline in the area lies at 5,800 metres (19,000 ft) altitude at Cumbre del Laudo. (Full article...)

Quilotoa (Spanish pronunciation: [kiloˈto.a]) is a water-filled crater lake and the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. The 3-kilometre-wide (2 mi) caldera was formed by the collapse of this dacite volcano following a catastrophic VEI-6 eruption about 800 years ago, which produced pyroclastic flows and lahars that reached the Pacific Ocean, and spread an airborne deposit of volcanic ash throughout the northern Andes. This last eruption followed a dormancy period of 14,000 years and is known as the 1280 Plinian eruption. The fourth (of seven) eruptive phase was phreatomagmatic, indicating that a crater lake was already present at that time. The caldera has since accumulated a 250-metre-deep (820 ft) crater lake, which has a greenish color as a result of dissolved minerals. Fumaroles are found on the lake floor, and hot springs occur on the eastern flank of the volcano.

Quilotoa is a site of growing popularity. The route to the "summit" (the small town of Quilotoa) is generally traveled by hired truck or bus from the town of Zumbahua 17 kilometres (11 mi) to the South, or more commonly by bus from Latacunga. Visitors have to pay two US dollars each to enter Quilotoa. There are a number of simple hostels in the immediate area offering services such as mules and guides. Activities include a four- to five-hour hike around the caldera. The caldera rim is highly irregular and reaches its maximum elevations 3,810 metres (12,500 ft) to the north, 3,894 metres (12,776 ft) to the northwest, and 3,915 metres (12,844 ft) to the southeast, at three lava domes. The 10-kilometre (6 mi) hike is sandy and steep in places and can be quite taxing, particularly if there is fog. (Full article...)

Siula Grande is a mountain in the Huayhuash mountain range in the Peruvian Andes. It is 6,344 metres (20,814 ft) high and has a subpeak, Siula Chico, 6,260 m (20,540 ft) high. (Full article...)

Lastarria is a 5,697 metres (18,691 ft) high stratovolcano that lies on the border between Chile and Argentina. It is remote, and the surroundings are uninhabited but can be reached through an unpaved road. The volcano is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of the four segments of the volcanic arc of the Andes. Over a thousand volcanoes—of which about 50 are active—lie in this over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) long chain of volcanoes, which is generated by subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate.

The volcano is constituted by two volcanic edifices that form a ridge, and one subsidiary lava flow field southwest of the main volcanoes. The main edifice features several aligned craters that form a line. There is no recorded eruptive activity, but the volcano displays vigorous fumarolic activity on its northern side and within the craters. It is located on top of older volcanic rocks and features both andesite and dacite. (Full article...)

Andean Geology (formerly Revista Geológica de Chile) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published three times per year by the National Geology and Mining Service, Chile's geology and mining agency. The journal covers the field of geology and related earth sciences, primarily on issues that are relevant to South America, Central America, and Antarctica with a particular focus on the Andes. The journal was established in 1974 and articles are published in English and Spanish. The editor-in-chief is Daniel Bertin (National Geology and Mining Service). (Full article...)

Chimborazo (Spanish: [tʃimboˈɾaso] ^ⓘ) is a stratovolcano in Ecuador and the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around AD 550. Although not the tallest mountain in the Andes or on Earth relative to sea level, its summit is the farthest point on Earth's surface from the Earth's center due to its location along the planet's equatorial bulge. Chimborazo's height from sea level is 6,263 m (20,548 ft), well below that of Mount Everest at 8,849 m (29,032 ft).

Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador and the 39th-highest peak in the entire Andes. (Full article...)

Telmatobius macrostomus, also known as the Lake Junin (giant) frog or Andes smooth frog, is a very large and endangered species of frog in the family Telmatobiidae. This completely aquatic frog is endemic to lakes and associated waters at altitudes of 4,000–4,600 m (13,100–15,100 ft) in the Andes of Junín and Pasco in central Peru. It has been introduced to slow-moving parts of the upper Mantaro River, although it is unclear if this population still persists.

Together with the closely related Amable Maria frog (T. brachydactylus), it is sometimes placed in the genus Batrachophrynus. (Full article...)

The yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda) is a species of New World monkey endemic to Peru. This rare primate is found only in the Peruvian Andes, primarily within the departments of Amazonas and San Martín, as well as in adjacent areas of La Libertad, Huánuco, and Loreto. (Full article...)

Paquni (Aymara paqu a kind of edible herb, -ni a suffix, "the one with the paqu herbs", Hispanicized spelling Pacuni) is a 4,838-metre-high (15,873 ft) mountain in the Potosí Department of Bolivia. It is located in the Antonio Quijarro Province, Tomave Municipality, northeast of the Jatun Mundo Quri Warani volcano. (Full article...)

Galeras (Urcunina among the 16th-century indigenous people) is an Andean stratovolcano in the Colombian department of Nariño, near the departmental capital Pasto. Its summit rises 4,276 metres (14,029 ft) above sea level. It has erupted frequently since the Spanish conquest, with its first historical eruption being recorded on December 7, 1580. A 1993 eruption killed nine people, including six scientists who had descended into the volcano's crater to sample gases and take gravity measurements in an attempt to be able to predict future eruptions. It is currently the most active volcano in Colombia. (Full article...)

Cordón del Azufre is an inactive complex volcano located in the Central Andes, at the border of Argentina and Chile. It consists of three stages of volcanic cones and associated lava flows, and its activity is a consequence of the subduction of the Nazca Plate underneath the South American Plate. North of it are the dormant volcano Lastarria and the actively uplifting Lazufre region. (Full article...)

Cerro Macá is a stratovolcano located to the north of the Aisén Fjord and to the east of the Moraleda Channel, in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile. This glacier-covered volcano lies along the regional Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone.

Cerro Macá is a relatively small volcano with a volume of only 39 cubic kilometres (9.4 cu mi). It has a summit elevation of approximately 2,300 m above sea level and features glaciers that in 2011 covered an area of 27.62 square kilometres (10.66 sq mi). The edifice is partially eroded and a sector collapse is probably the origin of a large steep sided depression in the summit area. Pyroclastic cones with associated lava flows are found on its southwestern flank but also on the other slopes of the volcano, as far down as sea level and in the Bahia Aysen. (Full article...)

Cerro Bayo is a complex volcano on the northern part border between Argentina and Chile. It consists of four overlapping stratovolcanoes along a north–south line. The main volcano face is located on the Argentine side, thought the summit of the complex is just west of the border, in Chile. The volcano is about 800,000 years old, but it is associated with ongoing ground uplift encompassing also the more northerly Lastarria and Cordón del Azufre volcanoes. The 5,401-metre (17,720 ft) high summit is the source of two viscous dacitic lava flows with prominent levees that traveled to the north.

Elemental sulfur can be found at Bayo, both in the form of high-grade massive deposits and as extinct fumarole chimneys. The volcano formed in three separate phases that produced lava flows. One is dated to 1.6±0.4 million years ago. The volcano can bear snow in winter. The youngest dated rocks are about 23,000 years old; in 2007 a steam eruption were observed by researchers investigating nearby salt pans such as Salar Ignorado. (Full article...)

Nahuel Huapi National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi) is the oldest national park in Argentina, established in 1922 as Parque Nacional de Sud and reconfigured in 1934. It surrounds Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes. The largest of the national parks in the region, it has an area of 7,050 km² (2,720 mi²), or nearly 2 million acres. Its landscapes represent the north Patagonian Andean Zone consisting of three types, namely, the Altoandino (with perpetual snow above an altitude of 1,600 metres (5,200 ft)), the Andino-Patagónico (in the lower reaches of the hills), and the Patagonian Desert. It also represents small parts of the Valdivian Rainforest.

The park and the reserve lie at an elevation of 720–3,574 metres (2,362–11,726 ft), and are designated under IUCN management categories II (National Park) and IV (Management Reserve). The park is completely protected while the reserve is partially protected. The national park is dominated by the high mountain chain of the Andes, many lakes, rapid rivers, waterfalls, snow-clad peaks, glaciers and extensive forests. It is bordered by Chile on its western side. (Full article...)