Glaciers in South America develop exclusively on the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and are subject to the Andes various climatic regimes namely the

Tropical Andes The Tropical Andes is northern of the three climate-delineated parts of the Andes, the others being the Dry Andes and the Wet Andes. The Tropical Andes' area spans . Geography and ecology file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions ...

Dry Andes file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions of the Andes. The Dry Andes are shown in yellow. The Tropical Andes are shown in green and the Wet Andes in dark blue. The Dry Andes ( es, Andes áridos) is a climatic and glaciology, glaciol ...

and the Wet Andes. Apart from this there is a wide range of altitudes on which glaciers develop from 5000 m in the

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...

mountains and

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

to reaching sealevel as tidewater glaciers from San Rafael Lagoon (45° S) and southwards. South America hosts two large

ice field An ice field (also spelled icefield) is a mass of interconnected valley glaciers (also called mountain glaciers or alpine glaciers) on a mountain mass with protruding rock ridges or summits. They are often found in the colder climates and highe ...

s, the Northern and

Southern Patagonian Ice Field The Southern Patagonian Ice Field ( es, Hielo Continental or '), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the P ...

s, of which the second is the largest contiguous body of glaciers in extrapolar regions. By surface about 80% of South America's glaciers lie in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

List of glaciers

Argentina

Perito Moreno Glacier The Perito Moreno Glacier () is a glacier located in Los Glaciares National Park in southwest Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentine Patagonia. The ice formation, in length, is one ...

Polish Glacier The Polish Glacier (Spanish ''Glaciar de los Polacos'') is one of the glacial fields of Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Andes and the Americas. It was named after the Polish expedition of 1934.J. Neate (1994). ''Mountaineering in the An ...

- Argentina/Chile *

Upsala Glacier The Upsala Glacier is a large valley glacier on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Its higher portion lies in a disputed territory between Chile and Argentina. While the glacier flows from north to south it has three lesser eas ...

* Spegazzini Glacier * Mayo Glacier * Onelli Glacier * Torre Glacier * Negro Glacier * Frías Glacier * Alerce Glacier * Castaño Overo Glacier * Manso Glacier * Peulla Glacier * Casa Pangue Glacier * Río Blanco Glacier * Torrecillas Glacier * Ventisquero Negro * Viedma Glacier * Lagrimas Glacier

Bolivia

Chacaltaya Chacaltaya ( Mollo language for "''bridge of winds''" or "''winds meeting point''", Aymara for "cold road") is a mountain in the Cordillera Real, one of the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Oriental, itself a range of the Bolivian Andes. Its ...

Chile

Amalia Glacier Amalia Glacier, also known as Skua Glacier, is a tidewater glacier located in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park on the edge of the Sarmiento Channel. The glacier originates in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. From 1945 to 1986, its terminus retre ...

Colonia Glacier Colonia Glacier (Spanish: ''Glaciar Colonia'' or ''Ventisquero Colonia'') is a valley glacier located in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile. The glacier spills out to the southeast from an ice plateau north of Cerro Arenales and has its ter ...

* Bernardo Glacier *

Brüggen Glacier Brüggen Glacier, also known as Pío XI Glacier, is in southern Chile and is the largest western outflow from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Now about in length, it is the longest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica.In th ...

or Pío XI Glacier * Dickson Glacier * Francia Glacier *

Garibaldi Glacier Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

* Grandes Ventisqueros *

Gran Campo Nevado The Gran Campo Nevado is a small ice field located in the southern portion of the Muñoz Gamero Peninsula, in Chile. It is about in area and feeds 19 outlet glaciers, of which the largest one is long. See also * Monte Burney * Riesco Island *St ...

Grey Glacier Grey Glacier is a glacier in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, just west of the Cordillera del Paine. It flows southward into the lake of the same name. Before dividing in two at its front end, the glacier is 6 kilometers wide and over 30 met ...

* Holanda Glacier * Italia Glacier *

Jorge Montt Glacier Jorge Montt Glacier is a tidewater glacier located in the Aisén Region of Chile, south of the town of Caleta Tortel. It lies at the north end of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, within Bernardo O'Higgins National Park. The mouth of Pascua Rive ...

Juncal Norte Glacier Location Nevado Juncal is a mountain at the border of Argentina and Chile, at the head of Aconcagua Val. It has a height of . It's located at La Yesera, Los Andes Department, Valparaíso Region, at the Central Andes. The mountain hosts sever ...

* Juncal Sur Glacier * La Paloma Glacier * Leones Glacier * Los Perros Glacier *

Marinelli Glacier Marinelli Glacier is a tidewater glacier located in Alberto de Agostini National Park, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The glacier spills out from the backbone of the Cordillera Darwin and calves into Ainsworth Bay, an embayment of the Almiranta ...

Nef Glacier Nef Glacier is a glacier located in Laguna San Rafael National Park, in the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile. It trends southeast from Cerro Largo to its terminus in the lake that shared its name. It is the fifth large ...

Mocho-Choshuenco Mocho-Choshuenco (Pronounced: ) is a glacier covered compound stratovolcano in the Andes of Los Ríos Region, Chile. It is made of the twin volcanoes Choshuenco in the northwest and the Mocho in the southeast. The highest parts of the volcan ...

Northern Patagonian Ice Field The Northern Patagonian Ice Field, located in southern Chile, is the smaller of two remnant parts in which the Patagonian Ice Sheet in the Andes Mountains of southern South America can be divided. It is completely contained within the boundaries ...

O'Higgins Glacier O'Higgins Glacier is a glacier located in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, Chile. It is one of the principal glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The summit of the active Lautaro volcano is the top of the accumulation zone of the glacie ...

* Pingo Glacier * Queulat Glacier *

Romanche Glacier Romanche Glacier is a glacier located in Alberto de Agostini National Park, Chile. A cascade from the glacier tumbles into the Beagle Channel Beagle Channel (; Yahgan: ''Onašaga'') is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the ext ...

San Francisco Glacier The San Francisco Glacier is a glacier in Monumento Natural El Morado Natural Park a hundred kilometers away from Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of th ...

* San Quintín Glacier *

San Rafael Glacier The San Rafael Glacier is one of the major outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field in southern Chile and is the tidewater glacier nearest the equator. It calves into the Laguna San Rafael and is contained within Laguna San Rafael Na ...

Serrano Glacier Serrano may refer to: People * Serrano people, a Native American tribe of Southern California * Serrano language, the language spoken by the Serrano people *Serrano (surname), people with the surname Serrano Places *Serrano, Lecce, an Italian to ...

* Soler Glacier *

- Chile/Argentina *

Steffen Glacier Steffen Glacier is a major outlet glacier of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile. It is the southernmost outlet glacier of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field and ends up in a lagoon fro ...

* Stoppani Glacier * Tyndall Glacier or Geike Glacier * Universidad Glacier * Yelcho Glacier

Colombia

Nevado del Ruiz The Nevado del Ruiz (), also known as La Mesa de Herveo ( en, Mesa of Herveo, the name of the nearby town) is a volcano on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a stratov ...

Ritacuba Blanco Ritacuba Blanco is the highest peak of Cordillera Oriental, in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. It's also named Ritak'uwa, an ancient name from the U'wa indigenous people that live in the lowlands of the National Park Sierra Nevada del Cocuy ...

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

* Snow Mountain of Quindio

Ecuador

Antisana Antisana is a stratovolcano of the northern Andes, in Ecuador. It is the fourth highest volcano in Ecuador, at , and is located SE of the capital city of Quito. Antisana presents one of the most challenging technical climbs in the Ecuadorian ...

El Altar El Altar or Capac Urcu (possibly from Kichwa ''kapak'' principal, great, important / magnificence, ''urku'' mountain) is an extinct volcano on the western side of Sangay National Park in Ecuador, south of Quito, with a highest point of . Spaniards ...

* Cayambe *

Chimborazo Chimborazo () is a currently inactive stratovolcano in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known eruption is believed to have occurred around 550 A.D. Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the Earth's surface from t ...

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a h ...

Peru

* Quelccaya Ice Cap * Pastoruri Glacier * Artesonraju Glacier * Llaca Glacier * Arhuey Glacier * Veronica Glacier

Venezuela

Humboldt Glacier Humboldt Glacier ( da, Humboldt Gletscher) is one of the major glaciers in northern Greenland. The glacier is named after German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and is the widest tidewater glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Geography The Humb ...

References

{{andean glaciers

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...