Spreading across countries Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. In length wise, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about 7,000 km long, about 200 km to 700 km wide and of an average height of about 4,000 m. Its highest peak, Mt. Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,962 m above sea level. The peak of Mt. Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the centre of the Earth than any other location on the Earth's surface. This is because of the equatorial bulge that results from the Earth's rotation. The world's highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina frontier which rises to 6,893 m and over 50 other volcanoes that rise above 6,000 m.
The Andes can be divided into three sections as the Southern Andes in Argentina and Chile, the Central Andes including the Chilean and Peruvian cordilleras and parts of Bolivia and the Northern Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador that consists of two parallel ranges, the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. In Colombia, north of its the border with Ecuador, the Andes split in three parallel ranges, the western, central, and eastern ranges. The eastern range of Colombia is the only one that extends to Venezuela. In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is often considered to be part of the Andes.
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