Andes Flashcards
What are folds the result of?
Folds are the result of compression.
Folds can go upwards to produce an anticline and downward to produce a syncline.
What the actual landscape looks like are a result of smaller scale, processes that happen afterwards i.e (action of erosion and weathering).
What are the Andes?
The Andes Mountains form one of the most distinctive landscapes on earth as they are one of the longest mountain ranges, stretching over 7,000 km along the west coast of South America.
How tall are the Andes?
The height of the Andes is about 4,000 meters high, and it includes peaks above 6,000 meters.
What does the Andes landscape also contain?
This landscape also contains the Atacama Trench which reaches a maximum depth of 8,065 metres below sea level.
How has the Andes formed?
The mountains have been formed as a result of the convergence of the Nazca plate and the South American plate.
The heavier oceanic crust of the Nazca plate is pushed towards the South American plate, and because it is denser is subducted underneath.
The South American plate is less dense so sits on top of this subduction zone, but the rocks of the South American plate have been folded upwards and crumpled into fold mountains.
