Cordillera Occidental (Peru)

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Map of Peru and its codilleras. Andes del Peru.png
Map of Peru and its codilleras.

In Peru the Cordillera Occidental is the western branch of the Andes. It bounds to the west with coastal plains or falls directly into the Pacific along cliffed coasts. To the east of Cordillera Occidental lies the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Oriental of Peru. As with other parts of the Peruvian Andes the Cordillera Occedental bears evidence on the Andean orogeny. [1]

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The Republic of Colombia is situated largely in the northwest of South America, with some territories falling within the boundaries of Central America. It is bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and it shares maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

Geography of Bolivia

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Cordillera Blanca Mountain range in Peru that is part of the larger Andes range

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American Cordillera Series of mountain ranges in the western Americas

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Cordillera Oriental (Peru)

The Cordillera Oriental is the eastern part of the Andes in Peru. This range contains Paleozoic metamorphic rocks.

Cordillera Central (Peru) Part of the Andes in Peru

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Andean Volcanic Belt Volcanic belt in South America

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The Andean orogeny is an ongoing process of orogeny that began in the Early Jurassic and is responsible for the rise of the Andes mountains. The orogeny is driven by a reactivation of a long-lived subduction system along the western margin of South America. On a continental scale the Cretaceous and Oligocene were periods of re-arrangements in the orogeny. Locally the details of the nature of the orogeny varies depending on the segment and the geological period considered.

Geology of Bolivia

The geology of Bolivia comprises a variety of different lithologies as well as tectonic and sedimentary environments. On a synoptic scale, geological units coincide with topographical units. The country is divided into a mountainous western area affected by the subduction processes in the Pacific and an eastern lowlands of stable platforms and shields. The Bolivian Andes is divided into three main ranges; these are from west to east: the Cordillera Occidental that makes up the border to Chile and host several active volcanoes and geothermal areas, Cordillera Central once extensively mined for silver and tin and the relatively low Cordillera Oriental that rather than being a range by its own is the eastern continuation of the Central Cordillera as a fold and thrust belt. Between the Occidental and Central Cordillera the approximately 3,750-meter-high Altiplano high plateau extends. This basin hosts several freshwater lakes, including Lake Titicaca as well as salt-covered dry lakes that bring testimony of past climate changes and lake cycles. The eastern lowlands and sub-Andean zone in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija Departments was once an old Paleozoic sedimentary basin that hosts valuable hydrocarbon reserves. Further east close to the border with Brazil lies the Guaporé Shield, made up of stable Precambrian crystalline rock.

Western Cordilleras can refer to

Tocllaraju

Tocllaraju is a mountain in the Cordillera Blanca in the Andes of Peru, about 6,034 m (19,797 ft) high. It is situated in the Ancash Region, Carhuaz Province, Aco District, and in the Huaraz Province, Tarica District. Tocllaraju lies north-west of the mountains Pukaranra and Palcaraju.

Johann Heinrich Conrad Gottfried Gustav Steinmann was a German geologist and paleontologist. He performed various studies in the Ural Mountains, North America, South America, the Caucasus and the Alps. Steinmann had a large number of scientific publications. He made contributions to the Theory of Evolution and to the study of the structural geology and orogeny of the Andes.

Altiplano Basin Sedimentary basin within the Andes in Bolivia and Peru

The Altiplano Basin is a sedimentary basin within the Andes in Bolivia and Peru. The basin is located on the Altiplano plateau between the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. Over-all the basin has evolved through time in a context of horizontal shortening of Earth's crust. The great thickness of the sediments accumulated in the basin is mostly the result of the erosion of Cordillera Oriental.

Casma Group

The Casma Group is a stratigraphic group of Cretaceous sedimentary formations exposed along the coast and within the Cordillera Occidental near Casma, Peru.

The Coastal Batholith of Peru is a group of hundreds, if not thousands, of individual plutons that crop out near or at the coast of Peru. The batholith runs a length of ca. 1600 km. Most of the plutons of the batholith were intruded in an elongated coast-parallel extensional basin. The magma that formed the batholith's plutons is thought to have originated from the partial melting of hydrated basaltic rocks at the base of the crust during rifting (extension). Subsequently, the rift basin was inverted. During the ascent the magma followed vertical pathways but emplacement was mostly in the form of tabular bodies.

References

  1. Pfiffner, Adrian O.; Gonzalez, Laura (2013). "Mesozoic–Cenozoic Evolution of the Western Margin of South America: Case Study of the Peruvian Andes". Geosciences. 3 (2): 262–310. Bibcode:2013Geosc...3..262P. doi: 10.3390/geosciences3020262 .

Coordinates: 14°00′S74°00′W / 14.000°S 74.000°W / -14.000; -74.000