The Andes mountains run the entire length of South America from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego. Formed by plate tectonics as the Nazca plate subducts under the South American plate, the Andes contain several volcanic zones and are home to the world's highest active volcanoes. The mountains have profoundly shaped the geography, climate, and human cultures of western South America, including hosting the Inca Empire and creating the high altitude grasslands of the Altiplano.

1. Andes Mountains Stairsteps to the heavens

2. Andes Mountains The Andes run the entire length of South America, from the humid tropics of the Caribbean to the ice fields of Patagonia. The longest north-south mountain range in the world, the Andes encompass a tremendous range of ecosystems and are home to a rich variety of plant and animal species and human communities.

3. subduction In this cross section of the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere, the map shows a subduction zone that has created the Peru-Chile Trench at the western edge of South America and the Andes Mountains along the west coast of South America.

4. Plate tectonics processes, caused by the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate produced the Andes.

6. Volcanoes At 19,350 feet, Ecuador’s Cotopaxi is the world's tallest active volcano

8. EL Condor Pasa Traditional Peruvian tune

9. highlands As the elevation changes in the Andes, so does the climate. While it may be 90°and raining at the base, it can be dry and below zero at the summit.

11. Earthquake-prone Rift valley near Quilotoa, Ecuador

13. Peruvian Andes

14. The finely crafted Inca walls of Sacsayhuaman, built on a hill above Cuzco .

15. Macchu Picchu Ruins on ridge northwest of Cuzco.

16. These salt pans were built by the Incas and are still being used (by a local co-operative) more than 6 centuries later.

18. El Paramo - Venezuelan Andes

19. Paramo A neotropical Andean ecosystem located in the high Andes region, between the upper forest line and the permanent snow line. Typical páramo vegetation around L ake Caricocha, Mojanda, Ecuador. Espeletia (Frailejón) plant in the Venezuelan páramo.

20. Cordillera Oriental Montane forests tamandua Lush forests of this semi-tropical ecoregion carpet the middle-to-high elevations of the northern Andes and surrounding foothills.

21. Cock of the Rock A male Andean Cock-of-the-rock , a species found in humid Andean forests

22. Altiplano Refers to much of Andean Bolivia which is on this high plateau

23. Altiplano - where the Andes are at their widest

24. Contemporary reed boats and boatmen on Lake Chad, Chad, Africa. Aymara reed boat builders at Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, South America.

25. Lake Titicaca the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, at 12,507 feet above sea level.

26. Atacama - world’s driest desert It is virtually sterile of plant or animal life.

29. The Andes as seen from a plane flying from Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina

30. Chilean steppes

31. Chile National Park

32. Patagonia Ice fields

33. A lake in Neuquén, Argentine portion of Patagonia

34. Lago, Argentina

35. Cerro Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas

37. Links Patagonian icefields http://www.thelastboat.co.uk/Chile/chilemain/torres.htm Wikipedia.org/Image:Andes_Chile_Argentina.jpg http://www.ancientperu.com/content/map/index.html http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/pb2/pb22/staff/SSobolev/boundaries.html http://www.answers.com/topic/andes?cat=travel Arizona.edu/geo527/Andes/intro Blue Planet Biomes.org/andes_climate