60 Fun Facts About Andes

What superlative do the Andes hold among the world's mountain ranges?

They run about 8,900 km down the western edge of South America, with an average height of around 4,000 metres.

Through how many South American countries do the Andes run?

From south to north: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

What is the highest peak in the Andes, and in all the Americas?

It stands in Argentina's Mendoza Province at about 6,961 metres, roughly 15 km from the Chilean border.

Which Ecuadorian volcano's summit is the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's centre?

Earth bulges at the equator, so a peak near the equator beats taller Himalayan giants when measured from the core.

What is the world's highest volcano, on the Chile-Argentina border?

It rises to 6,893 metres, and its extreme dryness means it carries no real glaciers, though a small permanent crater lake survives.

The subduction of which tectonic plate beneath South America is the main cause of the Andes' rise?

The Antarctic Plate also slides under the continent's far south; the whole system sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Which 1960 earthquake on the Andean subduction zone remains the strongest ever recorded?

The 2010 Maule quake, at magnitude 8.8, was another product of the same plate boundary off Chile.

The Andean high plateau, second in extent only to Tibet's, is called what?

Most of it lies in Bolivia; the region also holds vast salt flats and, on its northern edge, the continent's largest lake.

On which lake do the Uros people live on floating islands built from totora reeds?

At 3,812 m it is often called the world's highest navigable lake and straddles the Bolivia-Peru border.

What is the world's highest capital city, at about 3,650 m in the Andes?

Its neighbour El Alto pushes the conurbation up to 4,200 m.

Which is the largest city in the Andes, with a metropolitan population over ten million?

Lima, the biggest city of any Andean country, sits on the coast just below the mountains.

Chile and Peru are the world's two largest exporters of which metal?

Chuquicamata and Escondida in Chile and Toquepala in Peru are among the giant mines.

Which Bolivian salt flat holds the world's largest reserve of lithium?

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile hold the three biggest lithium reserves on Earth; the Chilean salar is the largest current source.

Which Bolivian mountain city's silver gave the Río de la Plata, and thus Argentina, their names?

Its Cerro Rico deposits are now mostly depleted, but in the 17th century they reshaped Europe's economy.

The Andean tree Cinchona is the original source of which drug?

Roughly 30,000 vascular plant species live in the Andes, half of them found nowhere else, along with wild ancestors of major world crops.

Which staple crop originated in the Andes and remains the region's key internally consumed food?

Maize was the other great crop, brewed into the drink chicha, and terraced hillsides spread widely under Inca rule.

The Andes are the world's most important region for which class of animal, with almost 1,000 species?

They also hold about 600 mammal, 1,700 bird, 600 reptile and 400 fish species.

What is the maximum wingspan of the Andean condor, the Western Hemisphere's largest such bird?

It nests as high as 5,000 m, matures at around six, and can travel 200 km a day looking for carrion.

The Andean condor is a national symbol of how many countries?

Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru all claim it; only about 10,000 birds remain and the IUCN rates it Vulnerable.

Which wild Andean camelid produces some of the finest and most expensive wool in the world?

It is thought to be the wild ancestor of the alpaca; hunting cut numbers to about 6,000 by 1974 before protection brought them back.

Which two domesticated relatives of the camel are kept across the Andes as pack animals and for wool?

Their wild cousins roam the high plateau of the central Andes.

Which threatened, dawn-and-dusk-active rodents of the Andes were nearly wiped out for their fur?

Two species survive; both are classed as threatened.

Which large threatened mammal shares the Andean cloud forests with the mountain tapir?

It is South America's only bear; mountain toucans, quetzals and the cock-of-the-rock live in the same humid forests.

Which small army, with tens of thousands of native allies, defeated the Inca in 1532?

Diseases and civil war had already devastated the empire; the Huancas, Chachapoyas and Cañaris fought against their former rulers.

Which Inca site, hidden where the Andes drop towards the Amazon, was never found by the Spanish?

It sits on a peak on the eastern edge of the range; we have a separate quiz devoted to it.

What are the two main surviving language families of the Andean peoples?

One theory derives the very word Andes from the Quechua anti, as in Antisuyu, the eastern quarter of the Inca Empire.

The word cordillera, used for the Andean chains, comes from a Spanish word meaning what?

Cordel is a cord or rope; the term now also covers the whole mountain backbone of the Americas.

Which desert on the Andes' western flank is the driest non-polar desert on Earth?

It sits between the Andes and the Coast Range, which block moisture from both sides; parts have been used to film Mars.

Why has NASA-style research been done in the Yungay area of Chile's northern desert?

In 2003 researchers repeated the Viking landers' life-detection tests on Yungay soil and found nothing.

Who reached the summit of the Americas' highest peak in the first recorded ascent, on 14 January 1897?

Expedition leader FitzGerald failed on eight attempts; two other members followed the guide up a month later.

Which nationality's 1934 expedition first climbed the east side of the Americas' highest peak, naming a glacier route?

The 'Polish Glacier' route is still one of the most popular ways up; another Polish team made the first ascent of the highest volcano in 1937.

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes in 1972, carried which sports team?

The Old Christians Club of Montevideo were flying to a match in Santiago; the flight became known as the Andes flight disaster.

For how many days were the survivors of Flight 571 stranded in the Andes?

They endured sub-zero cold, starvation and an avalanche that killed eight people as they slept in the fuselage.

Which two survivors trekked out of the mountains for ten days to bring rescue to Flight 571?

A Chilean muleteer, Sergio Catalán, spotted them across a river, threw them bread and rode eight hours for help.

Which 2023 Spanish-language film retold the story of the Andes flight disaster?

The 1993 English-language film Alive had told the same story three decades earlier.

Which mountain pass is the main road crossing of the Andes between Argentina and Chile?

Building highways and railways across the range has historically been beyond most neighbouring countries' means, so much passenger traffic goes by air.

Bolivia has been landlocked since Chile seized its only coastal province in which conflict?

Its diplomatic relations with Chile have been suspended since 1978, so it trades mostly through ports in Argentina and Uruguay.

What lies across the 1,000-km Drake Passage that appears to be a continuation of the Andes chain?

The whole American Cordillera runs almost unbroken from Alaska to Antarctica.

Which Caribbean islands were once thought to be the submerged northern tips of the Andes?

Geologists now say the tectonic boundary between the South American and Caribbean plates is too messy for that tidy story.

What is the Arica Elbow?

At the Bolivian Orocline the range swings from a northwesterly trend in Peru to due south through Chile and Argentina.

Andean coca leaves are legally consumed locally in what form?

Tobacco, cotton, quinoa and coffee are the region's main legal export crops.

Which endangered high-altitude trees, known locally as Queñua, grow higher than almost any other trees?

Found at up to 4,500 m, perhaps only 10% of the original woodland survives, and birds like the royal cinclodes depend on it.

Peru's Yanacocha mine ranks fourth in the world for which metal?

Bolivia's Andes chiefly produce tin today, though the El Indio belt on the Chile-Argentina border also holds gold under glaciers.

Roughly how high is the snow line in the tropical Andes of Ecuador and Colombia?

It falls to only 300 m in Tierra del Fuego, where big glaciers reach the sea.

The three climatic divisions of the range are the Tropical, the Wet and what?

The Dry Andes stretch from the latitudes of the northern desert to the Maule River, where rock glaciers often outnumber true glaciers.

Which Bolivian lake, once the country's second largest, had completely dried up by December 2015?

It sat on the southern high plateau, where the climate is far more arid than in the northeast.

How far back has Chile's coastal desert been hyper-arid, making it possibly the oldest desert on Earth?

Its aridity dates from the rise of a proto-Humboldt current after the Tasmania-Antarctic passage opened about 33 million years ago.

The name Andes most likely comes from the Quechua word anti, meaning what?

Antisuyu was the eastern quarter of the Inca Empire; a rival theory links the name to the Aymara word anta, meaning copper.

Roughly how long is the Andes mountain range?

Its width varies from about 200 km to 700 km, taking in parallel cordilleras, high plateaus and deep valleys.

Which peak in Peru, at 6,768 m, is the country's highest and one of the tallest in the range?

Illimani, at 6,438 m, is Bolivia's counterpart, while Aconcagua in Argentina tops them all at 6,961 m.

Which volcano marks the boundary between the Southern and Central Andes?

The Southern Andes lie in Argentina and Chile south of it, the Central Andes in Bolivia and Peru, and the Northern Andes split into three branches.

In which geological period did the Andes begin to take their present form?

The breakup of Pangaea in the Triassic started the process, but the uplift, faulting and folding that shaped the modern range came later.

Andean volcanoes are grouped into how many main volcanic zones separated by gaps?

The volcanism stems from the Nazca and Antarctic plates sliding under South America, and neighbouring volcanoes can differ wildly in style.

In Tierra del Fuego at 55°S, roughly how high is the Andean snow line?

It sits at 4,500-4,800 m in the tropics and drops steadily south; from 50°S several big glaciers reach the sea.

In the high Andes of central Chile and Mendoza, which frozen debris feature outnumbers true ice flows?

Intense solar radiation is the reason; the lowest active rock glaciers on Aconcagua sit at just 900 m above sea level.

About how many species of vascular plants live in the Andes, roughly half of them endemic?

That diversity surpasses any other biodiversity hotspot; tobacco and potatoes are among the crops that originated there.

Since 1978, Bolivia has had suspended diplomatic relations with which neighbour?

Landlocked since the War of the Pacific, Bolivia mostly trades through seaports in eastern Argentina and Uruguay instead.

Several Bolivian highways across the Andes were built to supply troops in a war against which country?

The roads carried men and supplies to the lowland front in south-eastern Bolivia and western Paraguay.

With irrigation and early sowing, maize can be grown in the Andes up to roughly what altitude?

Irrigation also lets farmers crop in the dry winter, growing frost-resistant vegetables like onions and carrots.

Which metal became the principal product of mining in the Bolivian Andes in the 20th century?

Bolivia's silver once shook 17th-century Europe's economy; tin took over as the country's main mining product in the 20th century, while Chile and Peru lead the world in copper and the region holds vast lithium reserves.