Why in news
Recent glacier retreat across the Andes has been found to be unprecedented in human history, according to a new study published in Science.
The study collected data at four glaciers across the Andes, which comprises 99% of the world's tropical glaciers.
These glaciers are more susceptible to changing weather since they're consistently at or near freezing point.
Andes mountain range
The Andes is the longest mountain range in the world.
Second only to the Himalayas in average elevation.
The Andes Mountain Range extends over 7,000 km from north to south along the western coast of South America.
It spans seven countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina
Because the Andes act as a large wall between the Pacific Ocean and the continent, they have a tremendous impact on climate in the region.
It consists of a succession of parallel and transverse mountain ranges, or cordilleras, and of intervening plateaus and depressions.
The highest elevation in the Andes is Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, which is 22,841 feet (6,962 m) above sea level.
The Andes are also home to the world’s highest volcano when measured above sea level, the Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina border.
The Andes Mountains are over 50 million years old, they were created when the South American and Pacific tectonic plates collided.
Lake Titicaca (highest navigable lake in the world) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru.
The northern part of the Andes is typically rainy and warm, and the weather is also wet in the eastern part of central Andes, and the area to the southwest.
To the west, the dry climate is dominated by the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
The mountains form a rain cover over the eastern plains of Argentina, which have extremely dry weather.
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