American Cordillera
The Cordillera continues on through the mountain ranges of Central America in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and becomes the Andes Mountains of South America. The Andes with their parallel chains and the island chains off the coast of Chile continue through Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile to the very tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego. The Cordillera continues along the Scotia Arc before reaching the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Geology of Chile
The Quaternary glaciations left visible marks in most parts of Chile, particularly Zona Sur and Zona Austral. These include ice fields, fjords, glacial lakes and u-shaped valleys. During the Santa María glaciation glaciers extended into the Pacific Ocean at 42° south, dividing the Chilean Coast Range and creating what is now Chacao Channel. Chiloé, part of the Chilean Coast Range, became an island. South of Chacao Channel, Chile's coast is split by fjords, islands and channels; these glaciers created moraines at the edges of the Patagonian lakes, changing their outlets to the Pacific and shifting the continental divide. The remnants of the Patagonian Ice Sheet which covered large parts of Chile and Argentina are the Northern and the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields.