Sierra de Córdoba

The Sierras de Córdoba is a mountain range in central Argentina, located between the Pampas to the east and south, the Chaco to the north and the foothills of the Andes to the west. Almost the entire range, except for the southwestern margin in San Luis Province, is located in Córdoba Province.

Much older than the Andes, having been formed in the Paleozoic and extensively eroded, the Sierra de Córdoba still manages to reach a height of 2880 metres at Mount Champaquí, east of Villa Dolores. The northern part, known as the Sierra de Norte, is considerably lower and less rugged. The mountains, when first built, formed the boundary between Gondwana and the then-expanding Pacific Ocean, and consist chiefly of metamorphic rocks such as quartzite, which were formed when large quantities of marine sediment were subject to enormous heat and pressure. In the Ordovician, there was extremely intense volcanism over the region, almost all of which is now completely eroded, forming the many salt lakes on the western side of the range, which is an elevated plateau leading to the foothills of the Andes.

The Sierras de Córdoba where the effects of the ancient Pampean orogeny can be observed, owes it modern uplift and relief to the Andean orogeny in the Tertiary.

The range has a largely rounded contour, and there are few major valleys. Salt lakes (salinas), the largest of which is Salinas Grandes receive most runoff from the mountains, except for the eastern part which drains into swamps in the Pampas. Though regarded as part of the Paraná River basin, under present climatic conditions almost no water reaches the river even in wet years.

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