Trisha Muccillo, age 10, of Grand Forks, N.D., for her question:
WHAT IS THE WORLD'S LONGEST MOUNTAIN CHAIN?
Stretching along the entire west coast of South America from Cape Horn to Panama are the Andes Mountains. They make up the world's longest mountain chain as they cover a distance of 4,500 miles.
Only the Himalaya Mountains of northern India and Tibet are higher than the Andes range. Several of the mountains in the Andes rise over 20, 000 feet high. The range is about 500 miles across at the widest part.
In Spanish, the Andes are called Cordillera de los Andes, which means Andes Mountain Range.
The southern Andes are less than 10,000 feet high near the southern tip of the continent.
The central Andes form the broadest part of the mountain system. Two ranges running northwest and southwest make up this section. Between these ranges lie the wide, high plains, or plateaus, of Peru and western Bolivia. The plateaus themselves lie about 12,000 feet above sea level.
Farther north the two ranges draw closer together. They finally join into one huge range in Ecuador. In this section are some of the highest peaks of the Andes.
The northern Andes have three ranges of mountains. None of these ranges rises as high as the mountains farther south. One range runs along the coast through Columbia and into Panama. The central range lies between the narrow valley of the Cauca River and the valley of the Magdalena River. This range includes the volcano Tolima.
The third range, on the east, runs northeast into Venezuela. Many peaks in the northern Andes reach 15,000 feet or more.
Many of the high mountains of the Andes are volcanoes and some of them are active. Earthquakes are common in the Andes.
Glaciers cover many of the high peaks of the Andes, even those close to the equator. The largest glaciers are in southern Chile. Others reach down to the Pacific Coast.
Many of the glaciers in the southern Andes have cut deep valleys into the rocky coastline. These valleys go far below the water level and make the coastline ragged like that of Norway.
Many deep inlets and rocky islands lie along the coast. Rivers flow into the Pacific through gaps cut by glaciers on the west side of the Andes.
The chief headstreams of the Amazon River rise on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Two other great rivers, the Parana and the Orinoco, also receive tributaries from the Andes.
Rainfall is light on the western slopes of the Andes, except in the section near the equator and in the southern third of Chile.
The name Andes is believed to have come from "anti," the Quechuan word for copper. Much of this metal is found in the mountains. The Andes also contain gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, platinum and quicksilver.