
Cordillera

A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope').
The term is most commonly used in physical geography and is particularly applied to the various ranges of the Andes of South America and less frequently to other mountain ranges in the "ridge" that rims the Pacific Ocean. In Colombia and Venezuela, cordilleras are named according to their position: Cordillera Occidental, Central, and Oriental. Various local names are used for the cordilleras in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
Such mountain ranges have a complex structure, which is usually the result of folding and faulting accompanied by volcanic activity. In South America, the ranges include numerous volcanic peaks. The Andes cordillera has Ojos del Salado, the highest active volcano in the world and second-highest point in the Western Hemisphere. (Though not itself a volcano, Argentina's Aconcagua, at , is the highest point in the Western Hemisphere.) Some of the volcanoes have been active in historical times.
Aside from the volcanic peaks, the crests include many narrow ridges, some of which reach into the zone of permanent snow. Between the ranges are numerous inhabited valleys, basins, and low plateaus, with a wide range of elevations.