The Northern Andean Environment

Author(s): James J. Parsons

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 2, No. 3, State of Knowledge Report on
Andean Ecosystems. Vol. 3: The Northern Andes: Environmental and Cultural Change (Aug.,
1982), pp. 253-264
Published by: International Mountain Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3673089 .
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Vol. 2, No. 3, 1982, pp. 253-262

MountainResearchand Development,

THE NORTHERNANDEAN ENVIRONMENT

J. PARSONS
JAMES
Department
of Geography
Universityof California
Berkeley,CA 94720, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION
The Andean Cordillera, one of the world's great mountain ranges, dominates the landscape and life of Ecuador,
Colombia, and Venezuela (Frontispiece). These three countries, with a comrbined population approaching 50 million,
were briefly united politically as Gran Colombia in the
years immediately following the nineteenth century wars
of independence. They continue to retain a sense of
common identity and interest that arises as much from the
similarity of their physical environments as from their history (Romero, 1965). Their traditions and their economies
are mountain-based. Half the population, and considerably more than half in Colombia, still lives within the
mountains, despite a continuing downslope migration
towards the surrounding tropical lowlands. Continuing
high rates of population growth and the attractions of urban
life in such major cities as Quito, Bogota, Cali, Medellin,
and Caracas underlie the persistence of their political and
cultural dominance and of their dense rural settlement patterns.
This northernmost part of the Andes, extending like the
neck and head of a giant sea-horse some 4,000 km from

about Cajamarca, Peru, to the Parla Peninsula in Venezuela, contrastswith the broader central part of the cordillera on account of higher rainfalland more abundantvegetation cover (Gomez Molina and Little, 1981). Originally
it was quite certainly forested, at least to the limits of the
paramo some 3,200-3,500 m above sea level. In spite of
extensive man-induced deforestation these are still mountains of greenness with much of the surface now in pasture grass or leguminous trees planted as shade for coffee.
Agriculture is practisedwithout irrigationin most areas
and artificial terracing is rare. Except in the wettest areas
where an effective dry season is lacking, these highlands
are closely settled by farmers of mestizo or Indian stock.
Maize, manioc, and potatoes are the most common crops,
along with introduced pasture grasses and, below about
2,000 m, coffee. Within these temperatehighlands,modem
urban centres, includingthe capitalcities of Quito, Bogota,
and Caracas, reflect their attractiveness as human habitats. These same highlands also were attractive to the
numerous aboriginal populations that the Spaniards encountered more than four centuries ago.

GEOMORPHOLOGY
The geology and history of the Northern Andes are
undoubtedly distinct from that of the better studied central
and southern part of the system and conclusions drawn
from one sector are of limited validity for another (Irving,
1975). It is clear, however, that the entire cordillera has
evolved through the subduction of the crumpled margin
of the East Pacific (Nazca) plate and, to the north, the
Caribbean plate, under the more rigid but lighter (sialic)
South American plate, represented by the ancient
crystalline Guiana and Brazilian shields (Ericksen, 1973).
Sediments accumulated in the great geosyncline on the
western margin of the continent have been compressed,
deformed, and faulted by oblique subduction, underthrusting the continent at the rate of approximately 90 mm a
year, with associated thrust faulting and uplift. Geologists
believe that these tectonic forces, similar to those operating
elsewhere around the Pacific rim, were initiated during the
Pliocene. That they continue today is evidenced by the

seismicity and the active vulcanism that characterizemuch

of the cordillera.
The Andes are among the world's most youthful
mountain ranges. Mountain building has been concentrated along the plate margins with associated deep ocean
trenches. It finds its driving forces in sea-floor spreading
along the East Pacific rise (James, 1973). In the north,
where the South American land mass abuts the smaller
Caribbean plate, the tectonic relationshipsare but vaguely
understood. Here the east-west trending Venezuelan
mountains in some way seem to be associatedwith Central
American and Antillean vulcanism and perhaps with that
of the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador. The latter mark a
submarine rift that separates the Nazca plate to the south
from the smallerCocos plate that extends northwardalong
the Colombian and Central American coasts.
Parallel systems of ranges dominate the Andean structure, converging at certain points in massive knots or nudos

254 / MOUNTAIN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

FIGURE1. Major physical lineaments and interior plains of the Northern Andes.

(Figure 1). In Colombia, where it is most complex, the

innermost ranges, facing the Amazon and Orinoco
lowlands, are comprisedpredominantlyof younger and less
altered(Tertiary) sediments while the more western ranges
tend to be of metamorphic rocks (gneisses, schists),
intrusive granitic batholiths, or volcanics (one acid type
of which has been named "andesite"for the mountains
where it was first described). The existence of high-level
erosion surfaces in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia,
often on soft sedimentaryrocks, suggeststhat it experienced
major vertical uplift in late Tertiary times and present
altitudes reflect epeirogenic uplift after the principal
Andean folding.
That the Northern Andes has been undergoing continuing uplift is confirmed by fresh fault traces and by the
high-level alluvial valley fill emplaced in many localities
as aberranthanging terraceshigh above present-daystream
courses. For example, the deep alluvial and volcanic debris

that clogs the intermontanedepressionof Ecuadorhas been

notably incised by headwarderoding streamsdrainingboth
towards the Pacific and towards the Amazon. They have
left river terrace systems of considerable extent that comprise some of the best agriculturalland in the highlands.
Some are lacustrine in origin, the result of drainage blockage by glaciersor by volcaniceruptions. The most extensive
tractsof undissectedvalley fill are in the upper Cauca River
(Valle del Cauca) and the high sabanasof Bogota in Colombia and the Lake Valencia basin in Venezuela.
THE ECUADORIANANDES

From southern Ecuador to the Nevado de Ruiz

(5,400 m) in the Central Cordilleraof Colombia the Andes
are crowned by nearly sixty volcanoes or strato-volcanoes,
many of them active, with strikinglysymmetricalcones that
reach into the zone of permanent snows. Cinder and lava
ejecta from them mantle most of highland Ecuador and

J.J. PARSONS / 255

a significant part of the Colombian Andes, providing the

fertile soils that support a dense farming population. In
southernmost Ecuador and adjacent Peru gently sloping
flows of pyroclastic materials cover a substantial area.
Recent vulcanism has been lacking in Venezuela and in
both the Eastern and Western Cordilleras of Colombia.
The Andes of Ecuador are the narrowest section of the
entire cordillera. Their simplicity contrasts with the complexity of the system farther north. Two parallel chains,
the Easternand the Western Cordillera,topped with many
volcanoes, most of which are snow-capped, enclose more
than twenty intermontane basins (hoyas)that collectively
comprisethe CallejonAndina. The crests of the two ranges
are about sixty kilometres apart and average 3,500 m elevation, except for the higher volcanic cones superimposed
upon them. The basins, each occupied by its own regional
urban centre (such as Loga, Cuenca, Riobamba, Ambato,
Quito, Otavalo, and Ibarra), range in elevation from
2,000 m to 3,200 m and are separated from each other by
cross ranges. These have developed at intersections where
transverse faults or lineaments have cut across the faultlined graben of the Callejon. The positioning of the larger
volcanoes on alternate sides of the north-south depression
favours the basin-like structure; the passes between them
usually rise to about 3,500 m.
The culminating massif of Chimborazo (6,310 m), an
inactive, glacier-adorned strato-volcano in the Western
Cordillera near Riobamba, is the highest point in the
Northern Andes. Once believed to be the highest mountain in the world, it early attractedthe attention of visiting
scientists. It inspired Alexander von Humboldt's classic
study of the altitudinal belts of tropical vegetation which
followed his unsuccessful attempt to reach the summit in
1802. Chimborazo is seen in best perspective from the
Pacific lowlands. Set in a mountain chain that rarely falls
below 3,200 m, it loses half its true height when seen from
the populous inter-Andean depression.
Eight of Ecuador'svolcanoes have been active in historic
times (Hall, 1977; Smith. Inst., 1981). Three others are
in a latent state, having erupted in the recent geologic past,
and are susceptible to renewed activity. Cotopaxi
(5,897 m), within sight of Quito, is one of the highest active
volcanoes in the world. It was extremely active in the last
half of the nineteenth century; its eruption in 1877 melted
the perennial ice at its summit to produce mud flows that
covered much of the inter-Andean valley below. Sangay
(5,230 m) and Tungurahura (5,016 m) are other impressive members of this avenue of volcanoes. Two others,
Reventador (3,485 m) and Sumaco (3,828 m) are basaltic
cones that dominate a third, lower range to the east, which
rises from a forested base at approximately 1,500 m.
Reventador and Sangay have been almost continuously
active in recent years. Although such eruptionsoccasionally
threatensurroundingpopulations,the benefitsof vulcanism
clearly outweigh the problems and dangers it presents.
They have provided not only the fertile and often nearly
level soils of the highlands but also the cangahua(tuff) so
important for the constructionof houses and walls and the
rocky materials employed in highway and airport
construction.

The accumulated depth of ash and pyroclasticmaterials

in the highland basins of Ecuador is spectacularlyexposed

that are being eroded headwardly into them.
by barrancas
those formed by the Guayllabamba River
these,
Among
and Chota River, which cut deeply into the intermontane
fill north of Quito on their way to the Pacific lowlands,
and form extensive salients of tierracaliente,are perhapsthe
most impressive.
ANDES
THE COLOMBIAN

A few kilometres north of the Ecuador-Colombian

border the parallel ranges and intermontane depression
merge into the Nudo de Pasto (Volcan Galeras, 4,276 m),
itself under attack by headward-erodingtributariesof the
Patia River which flows westward to the Pacific near
Tumaco. From Pasto the Colombian Andes fan out northward in three distinctprongs. Two of these eventuallypeter
out on the Caribbeancoast while the third curves eastward
in a giant arc at latitude 730' North to form the
Venezuelan Andes. A spur continues northward as the
Sierra de Perija, forming the boundary between Colombia
and Venezuela west of the Lake Maracaibo depression.
Two great river valleys, the Magdalena and the Cauca,
separate the Colombian ranges and provide avenues of
penetration from the Caribbean coastal lowlands into the
heart of the Colombian Andes. Late Tertiary or Quaternary volcanic activity blocking the middle course of the
Cauca formed a great lake that for a time filled the western
inter-Andean trough for about 200 km south of Cartago.
The river eventually broke through this dam to leave the
level floor of the Valle del Cauca (elevation about 980 m),
today one of the most productive agricultural areas of
Colombia.
Of the three Colombianrangesthe non-volcanicWestern
Cordillera, which forms a barrier between the raindrenched Pacific lowlands and the Cauca drainage, is the
lowest and the least populated. Superhumid tropical air,
lifted orographically, saturates its west-facing midslopes
with up to 6,000 mm of rainfall annually. Between Cali
and Buenaventura two passes of less than 1,600 m mark
depressionsin the range. Another to the north, the 2,560 m
Boqueron de Toyo, is crossed by the road from Medellin
to Turbo on the Gulf of Uraba. Elsewherethe crest is much
higher, with maximum elevations approaching4,000 m as
far north as the little-known Paramillo in Antioquia, on
the slopes of which was located the legendary Indian and
colonial mining camp of Buritica. From here the cordillera
fingers north into the three distinct serraniasof Abibe, San
Jeronimo, and Ayapel which drop gradually to the piedmont plains of the Caribbean coast.
The Central Cordillera, narrower and loftier, is a
continuation northwardof the Ecuadorianvolcanic range.
Crystallinerocksare exposed at severalplaces on its flanks,
and are the bases of local gold and silver mineralization
as at Popayan and Mariquita. Elsewhere the underlying
basement is overlain by folded Tertiary sandstones and
shales. From Pasto north to the Antioquia border near
Sonson the older range has been capped by ash and lava
derived from a line of some 20 Quaternary volcanoes
(Ramirez, 1969). Several, like their counterpartsin Ecuador, reach well into the area of permanent snow above
4,500-4,800

m.

These

include

the Purace-Conucos

256

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RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT

complex behind Popayan, the Nevado de Huila (5,750 m)

southeast of Cali, and the Rufz-Tolima or Quindio
complex between Manizales and Ibague. Seven of these
have been active in historic times and four more are in the
fumarolic stage. The fertile andesitic ash from their eruptions has produced the often steep and unstable slopes that
support most of Colombia's coffee fincas (family-operated
coffee farms), including those of the highly productive
Quindio district around the cities of Pereira and Armenia.
The heavily travelled Quindio Pass (3,485 m) links Bogota
and the Magdalena valley with the Valle del Cauca and
the Pacific port of Buenaventura.
Beyond Sonson the volcanic Central Cordillera gives way
to the deeply weathered quartz-diorites of the Mesozoic
Antioquia batholith, a tableland covered by unproductive
clay soils with an average elevation of about 2,500 m. It
is divided into two parts by the deep transverse cleft of the
antecedent Porce River (Medellin River) that occupies a
U-shaped valley in which is situated the expanding metropolis of Medellin (1,500 m). This intrusive batholith, shot
through with auriferous quartz veins, was the source of the
gold-bearing gravels that gave rise to an active colonial
mining economy both in the highlands and along the lower
Cauca River and Nechi River (Zaragoza, Caceres). Where
the Cauca turns east below Santa Fe de Antioquia it occupies a spectacular V-notched canyon that has been
estimated to have an enormous potential for hydroelectric
development.
The Eastern or Bogota Cordillera, separating the
Magdalena valley from the eastern plains (Llanos) is blocky
and massive, comprised chiefly of folded and faulted
marine sediments that overlie older schists and gneisses.
Narrow in the south, it broadens out in the high, largely
unsettled massif of Sumapaz, with elevations up to
4,300 m, and is an important reserve water supply for the
Bogota conurbation (Giihl, 1964). The sabana of Bogota
(2,660 m), part of an extensive Pleistocene lake system that
extends northward to Tunja, has been the traditional centre
of Chibcha, Spanish, and Colombian culture and government. The gently rolling uplands that surround these high
plains extend above the treeline into the paramos. Farther
north, beyond the deep gorges cut by the Chichamocha
River and its tributaries flowing towards the Magdalena,
tower the culminating peaks of the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy
(5,493 m).
From its higher eastern crest the cordillera drops
abruptly to the Llanos, its flank cut by deep, short canyons. The Bogota-Villavicencio highway provides a magnificent perspective on this east-facing scarp, which contrasts with the more gradual descent westward in the direction of the Magdalena valley.
Beyond the Nudo de Pamplona the Eastern Cordillera
bifurcates into two much narrower ranges, the higher of
which becomes the Venezuelan Andes. The Serrania de
Perija or Motilones (3,750 m), the boundary range between
Colombia and Venezuela, has extensive coal deposits now
under development in its northern foothills. Towards the
Caribbean it gradually descends to become the low hills
that form the backbone of the Guajira Peninsula.
The isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, with its imposing granite massif (5,775 m, the highest in Colombia)

rising abruptly from the Caribbean coast to snow-capped

and glaciated peaks, is not strictly a part of the Andes.
Some geologists, however, have interpreted it as an
extension of the Central Cordillera, from which it is
separated by the down-dropped Mesozoic graben of the
Mompos Depression in the lower Magdalena valley.
THE VENEZUELAN ANDES

The Cordillera of Merida is set off from the broader

Colombian ranges and the Paramo de Tama on the
Venezuela-Colombia boundaryby the Tachira Depression
(800 m), the lowest pass through the Andes north of the
Chilean lake district. This low hill country, in which are
situatedthe cities of San Cristobal(Venezuela) and Cucuta
(Colombia), greatlyfacilitatescommunicationsbetween the
rapidly developing Lake Maracaibo lowlands and the
western Llanos, especially with the completion of the
highway along the margin of the Llanos which links the
border areas with Barinas, Guanare, Caracas, and
easternmost Venezuela.
The steep and rugged Merida Cordillera has a characteristic Andean structure and grandeur. It extends to the
paramos and permanent snow belts at several places, most
conspicuously in the massive Sierra Nevada de Merida
(Pico de Bolivar 5,007 m) immediately above the city of
that name to which it is linked by an aerial cable. Some
450 km long and 80 km wide, the cordillera is comprised
chiefly of ancient schists and gneisses with granitic intrusions exposed at the higher points. On its southeastmargin
it drops precipitously from the summits directly to the
Llanos, its flanks deeply incised by short streams. On the
northwest it is in part bordered by the lower Tertiary hills
and dissectedplateausof the Segovia Highlandsthat extend
through the state of Lara to the arid Caribbean littoral
(Jahn, 1921).
These tortuously rugged mountain lands were the early
heartlandof what was to become Venezuela. Colonial cities
such as Merida, Valera, and Trujillo, nestled in long,
linear, fault-controlledvalleys, were linkedby a majormule
trail to both Bogota and Caracas. Almost the only flat lands
are the river terraces and mesas along the incised canyons
of rivers such as the Mototan and the Chama. Like the
major fault systems these run parallel to the predominant
northeast-southwestorientation of the ranges until cutting
through deep transverse canyons to the lowlands around
Lake Maracaibo. Isolation from markets, increasing fragmentation of land holdings, and severe soil erosion have
led to the area's continuing economic decline. The
Venezuelan Andes today are the most backward and
impoverished part of the country, the source of much of
the emigration to the oil fields and the burgeoning metropolitan areas of Caracas and Maracaibo (Watters, 1967).
Behind Barquisimeto and the headwaters of the
northeasterlyflowing Yaracuy River, the Merida Cordillera merges into the low hills of the Lara Depression. Here
the Andes proper, in Venezuelan usage, are said to terminate. Their topographic trend lines, however, continue
eastward as the Central Highlands and the Northeastern
Highlands, El Sistema OrograificaCentral and El Sistema
Montafioso Oriental of Pablo Vila (Vila, 1960).
The first of these, in reality two distinct ranges, is an

J.J. PARSONS / 257

east-west oriented block about 400 km in length that abuts
the Caribbean shore. The higher and unbroken Serranfa
de la Costa reaches above 2,600 m at the Silla de Caracas
and the Pico Nigueta immediately north of the capital city.
Both it and the Serrania del Interior, composed predominantly of crystalline and metamorphic rocks, terminate on
the coast where they turn south to form the western side
of the Gulf of Barcelona. The straight northern margin of
the Serrania de la Costa, mostly cliffed, is controlled by
faulting. So are the intermontane valleys that lie between
the two major ranges, including the 90 km long Lake
Valencia Depression (elevation 450 m) and, to the east,
the smaller valley of the Tuy River which drains eastward
to the Caribbean. It is a tributary of the latter, the Guaire
River, with headwaters in the coastal range only 10 km
from the Caribbean, that drains the elongated valley of
Caracas (elevation 900 m), now almost completely
urbanized. The anticlinal ridges of the Serrania del Interior
to the south and west, overlooking the Llanos, are distin-

CLIMATE

guished locally by a number of steep, sharp limestone peaks

known as morros.
Eastward, beyond the Gulf of Barcelona, the Serrania
de la Costa re-merges to form the two peninsulas of Araya
and Parfa, which rise above the straight, cliffed coast to
elevations of about 1,000 m. They, too, are predominantly
of metamorphic rocks. Beyond the Parfa Peninsula and the
Bocas del Drago channel the same structure re-emerges as
the northern range of the island of Trinidad. South of the
structural depression in which Cumana and the gulf of that
name are located, between Barcelona and the Gulf of Parfa,
lie the higher, sparsely settled Cretaceous highlands that
are the eastward extension of the Serrania del Interior (Pico
de Turimiquire, 2,596 m). Between these Northeastern
Highlands and the Central Highlands only a low range of
hills, drained by the northward flowing Unare River,
separate the interior Llanos from the Caribbean Sea (Jahn,
1921; Vila, 1960).

AND VEGETATION

In equatorial latitudes where the Northern Andes lie the

seasons are delimited by rainfall. There is little temperature
difference between the warmest and coldest month. Such
markedly isothermal conditions,
together with the
temperate climate of the mid-slopes and the brilliant translucence of the Andean air, qualifies these mountains as "a
land of eternal spring."
The decrease in temperature with increasing altitude
approximates 0.6 C for each 100 m so that the topographic
map serves roughly as a temperature map, with contour
lines equating with isotherms. But different flanks of the
same mountain may vary markedly in precipitation,
cloudiness, and radiation. The rapid succession of life forms
has deeply impressed observers travelling through these
mountains since the days of Humboldt.
In generalized terms convention distinguishes the tierra
caliente(below 1,000 m), the tierratemplada(1,000-2,200 m)
and the tierrafria (2,200-3,200 m), above which is the
treeless paramo, habitat of the distinctive giant Compositae, Espeletia spp. (frailejdn). Vertical contrasts in temperature also play a critical role, along with annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, in defining
the well-known biological life zones mapped by the Holdridge system: Ecuador (MAG, 1978); Colombia (IGAC,
1962); and Venezuela (Ewel, Madriz and Tosi, 1976).
Although widely adopted, the system does not take into
account the length or severity of the dry season or the extent
to which the original vegetation cover may have been
modified by man. Based upon the life zone maps for the
three countries, a generalized map of the Northern Andes
is presented in Figure 2.
The position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone
(ITCZ) contributes directly to the perennial humidity of
southern Colombia and northern Ecuador, with most of
the area having the double rainfall maximum and minimum characteristic of the inner tropics. Its seasonal shift
northward in June-July and southward in December-January controls the seasonality of precipitation

elsewhere. In areas close to the Caribbean the single dry

season (verano)centres on the first months of the year while
in most of Ecuador this occurs in the middle months.
Precipitation at Quito, where agriculture in some years
may suffer from drought, has been shown to be related with
statistical significance to the January intensity of the
Icelandic low pressure cell and this with January temperatures in Greenland and Norway, the intensity of the trade
winds, and the position of the equatorial zone of rains
(Knapp, 1980). Thus, short-term forecasts of some
reliability, and even the reconstruction of the climatic
history of this part of the Andes, may be within reach.
Weather conditions would be influenced also by the behaviour of the cold Peru (Humboldt) Current along the
Peruvian coast and the "El Nifio" phenomena which occasionally impinges on the weather conditions of southern
Ecuador (Blandin Landivar, 1976).
These Andean mountains and valleys, although
generally drier than the surrounding lowlands to the east
and west, are much better watered than the cordillera to
the south, in Peru. Irrigation is needed only in restricted
areas where there are severe rain-shadow conditions. Because of the abruptness and complexity of the topography
there are numerous such dry areas and important ecological
changes may occur over very short distances. The deepest
valleys, as those of the Chama River (Venezuela), the
Chichimocha and Patia rivers (Colombia), and the Chota
River (Ecuador) have true desert conditions (the BS and
B W of the K6ppen system) with cactus and other
xerophytes. Desert conditions also exist in a narrow zone
along the coastal mountain fringes of Venezuela where prevailing winds parallel to the shoreline lead to atmospheric
divergence and subsidence. The upper Cauca and Magdalena valleys and the intermontane basins of Ecuador are
also significantly less rainy than the surrounding
mountains.
Human habitation of the Andes for thousands of years
has led to major alterations in the vegetation cover. Forests

258

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RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT

FIGURE 2. Life zones of the Northern Andes generalized from ecological maps following the system of world vegetation formations
of L.R. Holdridge (1979).

originally covered all but the highest and driest areas and
localities edaphically unsuited to support them. Today they
are restricted to the steepest, most inaccessible slopes and
areas of especially high rainfall. Elsewhere pasture, crops,
or degraded scrub and grass have replaced the original
cover of broadleaf evergreen trees. The first chroniclers
often described the inner Andes as being but sparsely
wooded, "rough, with naked trees and few hills." They
frequently interpreted these conditions as the product of
Indian agriculture and burning. In more recent times, with
the increasing numbers of European cattle, the area of
grassland has been vastly extended. Introduced species of
African origin are particularly conspicuous and some, like
kikuyu grass, are spreading aggressively.
Even in the most lush forest tracts that remain, as in
the superhumid environments of the outer cordilleran
flanks in the eastern and western ranges of Ecuador and
Colombia, there is much evidence of earlier human occupancy. These wet montane forests are characterized by

mosses, lianas, bromeliads, and such economically valued

members as cinchona, the latex-bearing Sapotaceae (balata,
chicle), ivory nut or tagua (Phytelephus), and the giant
American bamboo (Guadua). Lumbering has had a very
minor role here due to the singular difficulty of access as
well as the absence of massed trees of any one commercial
species.

The paramo is a distinctive biome of the superhumid

equatorial high mountains, reaching from the upper limits
of the cloud forests (about 3,200 m) to the belt of permanent snows (4,700 m). It is unique to the Ecuador and
Colombian Andes and their lesser extension into
Venezuela. Paramo-like environments also extend a short
distance into northern Peru and into the Cordillera de Talamanca of southeastern Costa Rica. Its closest counterpart
elsewhere is found in the high mountains of East Africa
and New Guinea (Troll, 1968; Salgado-Labouriau, 1979;
Lauer, 1981). This alpine-type vegetation association is
characterized by tussock grasses (pajonales),cushion plants,

J.J. PARSONS/ 259

and the tree-like Espeletia, a curious looking, hairy-leafed
genus represented by 50 different species (Cuatrecasas,
1968; Lauer, 1979). It is this last, fire-resistant and adapted
to low temperature and high humidity, that gives special
character to the paramo landscape, especially in Colombia
and Venezuela.
Clouds or fog enshroud the paramo for much of the year
and evapotranspiration is low. The boggy, peat-like soils
are black and high in organic matter. The vertical range
of the paramo formation narrows on the more humid
eastern exposure of the cordillera where the treeline is
higher and the snowline lower (Troll, 1968; SalgadoLabouriau, 1979; Lauer, 1981). In Ecuador it may drop
to 2,800 m on the drier west-facing slopes of the Eastern
Cordillera facing the Callejon Andina.
Climatological data are limited but average annual
precipitation may range from 750 to more than 2,000 mm.
The Venezuelan paramos are drier than those of Colombia
and Ecuador, and from late November to March they
frequently extend into the clear air above the sea of clouds
banked against the uppermost forest (ceja de la montana).
The same may be true of the Sierra Nevada de Santa
Marta. The paramo above Merida averages 180 days of
precipitation a year while the Pairamo de Montserrat above
Bogota and the high shoulders of Volcan Cotopaxi in

GLACIATION

Ecuador both report some 250 rainy days (Lauer, 1979).

In this super-saturated environment, with high daytime
radiation, the average annual temperature ranges from 2
to 10C. There is a high frequency of night-time frost and
the diurnal freeze-and-thaw cycle stresses both plant life
and the soil (Schnetter et al., 1976).
The lower paramo (sub-paramo) below 3,500 m is a
transitional belt in which scattered clumps of trees are not
uncommon, especially the cold-resistant Polylepis.It favours
shallow, talus slopes where the soil tends to be warmer than
elsewhere. These trees may occasionally reach as high as
4,000 m.
Despite its bleak and forbidding climate, the paramo
areas have been significantly altered by human activity,
especially wood cutting and burning to promote grazing.
Agriculture has also impinged on its lower reaches.
Potatoes are the paramo crop par excellence,being grown
as high as 4,000 m in Colombia on the eastern slope of
the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy. In Ecuador potato production is now being transformed by modern mechanized
agriculture which is said to be obtaining good yields in spite
of the low temperatures (Sampedro, 1975-1976). But
extensive tracts of paramo remain relatively untouched by
humans. Their principal future value may be as water
catchment areas for the cities and farmlands below.

AND CLIMATIC

Tropical mountains provide a unique opportunity for

the study of climatic change through the advance and retreat of glacial ice and snow. The South American Andes
are one of only three places on earth where glaciation occurs
in the vicinity of the equator. In each there are clear indications of a recent sharp retreat of the lower limit of glacial
ice. Today only small remnant glaciers remain on the
higher Andean peaks (Hastenrath, 1979). From available
historical accounts there seems to have been no significant
warming or cooling trend during the colonial period. The
first indication of ice recession comes in the early years of
the nineteenth century. A later ("neo-glacial") advance
about 80 years ago has been followed by an accelerated
retreat continuing to the present.
The present position of the permanent snowline varies
with exposure. It lies at about 4,600-4,700 m in the
Colombian Andes, only slightly higher in Ecuador
(Wilhelmy, 1957). Glacial features such as moraines are
found throughout the paramo and as low as about 3,000 m
elevation. There is evidence that isolated valley glaciers
in the past descended to 2,200 m on the massive Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta and to nearly 2,600 m on the
Venezuelan Andes (Royo y Gomez, 1959). Cirque lakes,
NATURAL
The combination of the geological background, the
broken topography with over-steepened slopes, and the
high incidence locally of torrential tropical rainfall makes
the densely settled Northern Andes highly susceptibe to
devastating ecological disruptions. Their position along

CHANGE

a classic glacialfeatureof high mountains, are concentrated

in a belt between 3,300 and 3,600 m in all three countries.
The present climate appears to be warmer and drier than
experienced in the recent past.
Relative chronology can be established for Andean
glaciations on geomorphic evidence but it is difficult to
extrapolate to the tropical zone from better known midlatitude conditions. Two, three, or four glacial advances
are generally recognized in the Northern Andes. Although
usually interpreted as subdivisions of the late Wisconsin
(Wiirm) glaciationof North America and Europe, evidence
for pre-Wisconsinglaciationhas been reportedin Colombia
where a lateral moraine on the Nevado de Ruiz lies under
volcanic ash radiometrically dated at 100,000 BP (Herd
and Naeser, 1974). The lack of evidences of earlier glaciation often has been attributed to the late uplift of the
Andean range although on palynological evidence it has
been argued that the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, at
least, has been at approximatelyits present elevation since
the end of the Pliocene (Van der Hammen, 1979). More
evidence, including confirmeddating by other techniques,
is needed to verify this interpretation.

HAZARDS

plate boundaries where continuing crustal deformation is

occurring contributes especially to the high concentration
of geologic hazards(Caviedes, 1981). The instabilityof the
volcanic ash slopes and the glacio-fluvialdeposits from the
glaciated higher mountains contributes to this propensity

260

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RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT

to catastrophe, which is further aggravated by the high

densities of population. The consequences of such events
for the adjacent lowlands may be substantial, especially in
the form of widespread flooding and accelerated
sedimentation aggravated by man-induced hydrologic
alterations (Brunnschweiler, n.d.).
Earthquakes are a continuing and ever-present hazard
to human life in all the Andean countries. Comparatively
few such seismic events, however, are known to have been
associated with surface fault movements. Nearly all that
have their epicentres on land are deep, focused within the
Benioff zone below the continental plate. Shallow quakes
tend to occur offshore in association with ocean trenches.
In these, surface ruptures seem likely to occur, but they
cannot be observed. Tsunami waves, such as the one that
damaged Tumaco, Colombia, in 1979 may be evidence
of this.
Historical reconstructions suggest that "ruinous and
disastrous" quakes have hit the Venezuelan Andes approximately once every 30 years since 1530 (Centefio-Graii,
1940). Major quakes have three times destroyed Caracas
(1641, 1766, and 1812) with the most calamitous being the
last. A 6.5 Richter-scale temblor on 29 July 1967 did major
structural damage to modern high-rise buildings in the
capital and in La Guaira. Cumana, on the eastern coast,
has been levelled four times (1530, 1706, 1853, and 1929)
with seismic sea-wave damage contributing significantly
to the toll on at least two occasions. Caruipano suffered
similarly in 1874. Merida and the surrounding area in the
Andes have been frequently shaken, most destructively in
1786.
A similar Colombian study (Ramfrez, 1969) lists 597
quakes in the period 1566-1963, of which some 70 were
of VIII or greater intensity on the Rossi-Forel scale. Those
of 1595 and 1845 accompanied the eruption of Ruiz with
destructive mud flows (aluviones)onto the Tolima plains in
the Magdalena valley taking many lives on the latter
occasion. Quakes of 1566, 1595, 1644, 1735, 1785, and
1805 stand out among those in the colonial period and the
last destroyed the Magdalena river port of Honda. Bogota
has suffered damage on numerous occasions, but the most
serious quake in Colombian history was probably that of
1875 that made rubble of the city of Cucuta on the Venezuelan border. The 1906 Tumaco quake was also extraordinarily severe. This and the more recent Tumaco quake
were shallow rooted, with offshore epicentres (Herd et al.,
1981).
Ecuador, perhaps even more prone to damaging seismic
events, lists 315 "principal quakes" between 1534 and 1958,
of which 99 are estimated to have been of 6.5 or greater
magnitude on the Richter scale (OAE, 1959). The
destruction of Ambato in 1698 and of Riobamba in 1797
(which killed between 5,000 and 6,000 people) stand out
as probably the greatest tragedies in the country's seismic
history. That there will be other and equally damaging
quakes in the future is one of the facts of life that must continually be taken into account by officials and planners as
well as the common man.
Earthquakes have often triggered destructive landslides

or mud flows in addition to the more common structural

damage to buildings that they inflict. Especiallyafterheavy
rains the steep slopes saturated with water are susceptible
to massive slipping and sliding which is not always related
to seismic activity. In Colombia entire hillsides and even
towns have been wiped off the map. Precariouslysited cities
like Manizales and Bucaramanga have lost entire blocks
of buildings in such events with major loss of life. Riobamba, an importantcolonialcity in Ecuadorat the present
location of Cajabamba, was destroyed by such a landslide
in 1797.
Road cuts or other construction activity may facilitate
such mass movements, sometimeswith cataclysmicresults.
The great Quiebra Blanca slide on the Bogota-Villavicencio road in June 1977 took the lives of some 200 people
waiting in buses and cars blocked by smaller slides. It left
that strategichighway link between the Colombian capital
and the Llanos closed for four months, effectivelyisolating
the departmentof Meta from the rest of the country. Such
disruptionsof communicationare routinein Colombia, and
the cultivationof excessivelysteep and unstableslopesoften
has
aggravates the problem. Many a Colombian campesino
"fallen"to his death while cultivating his maize field or
manioc patch. But even well-forested Andean slopes are
scarred with slips that may be unrelated to human activities. These are caused by overloading with water during
extreme rainfallevents even in the absenceof seismicmovements. Such slide scars, reachingdown to the regolith,may
take many years to be healed over by the surrounding
forest.
Garner (1959) counted more than 200 major slides and
countless smaller ones in a single air reconnaissance over
the water-saturatedslope of the Serrania de la Costa near
Caracas in February 1951. The larger ones were in excess
of 100 m wide and up to 400 m long. They were inclined
at 30 or more, with their bases in steep valleys. He estimated, based on the average dimension of the slides, that
a minimum of 20 million cubic metres of materialhad been
removed in a few weeks. Such phenomena apparentlyhave
played an important role in slope steepening in the
Northern Andes.
Forest clearing, much intensifiedin recent years, has led
to accelerated slope erosion, with resultant intensification
of floods, especially in the extensive drainage basin of the
Magdalena valley (Vidart, 1976). Such floods in the lower
Magdalena system, as well as in the Valle del Cauca, have
become annual occurrences, with damage reaching into
many millions of dollars. The Magdalena has become virtually unnavigable during much of the year as a result of
the changed hydrologic regime, and extensive shoaling
during the dry season prevents the use of even shallowdraft vessels. Reservoirs, such as that on the Anchicaya
River, near Cali, have silted up at alarming rates and in
some cases have become almost useless for water storage.
Lake Valencia in Venezuela is today but a fraction of its
original size as a result of increased take-off of water for
irrigationand reducedmoistureretentionin the soils within
its watershed.

J.J. PARSONS / 261

CONCLUSIONS
That part of the Andes situated between Cajamarca in
northernPeru and the coast of Venezuela is a dense mosaic
of ecosystems that is distinguished from the broad central
section of the cordillera in Peru and Bolivia by its higher
humidity and the climatic symmetry between the east and
west flanksof the range. Weatheringin the NorthernAndes
is a predominantly chemical process that generates a fine
detritus-clay, silt, and sand-that is naturally protected
by vegetation from fluvial or aeolian erosion. When the
vegetation is disturbed, change is triggered. The removal
of the original plant cover in this "high energy" environment of sharp relief where all processes are intensified has
led to serious erosion. Rapidly accelerating human pressures are exponentiallyaugmenting the downslope transfer
of materials. In many cases people are beginning to follow.
Fortunatelythe recuperativepowers of vegetation cover
in these humid environments is considerable. However,
the abundant rainfalland its higher intensities in the north
tend to neutralize this apparent advantage. It is the soils
of the drier, rain-shadowedpocketsin Ecuador, Colombia,
and Venezuela that show some of the most severe examples of soil erosion, gullying, and land abandonment
(Jungerius, 1975). The introductionof European livestock
has had an especially severe impact on such areas, destroying the ground cover and encouraging the selective spread
of thorny, poisonous, less palatableplants. Animal trampling on slopes became more damaging because the sheep,
goats, cattle, donkeys, and horses had sharperhooves and
were more numerous than the llamas and alpacas that they
replaced (Ellenberg, 1979).
Colombia has taken the lead in studying the region's
erosion problems. A general erosion map of the country
has been prepared(scale of 1:1,000,000) to serve as a baseline document for planning purposes (Lecarpentier et al.,
1977). In March 1981, Unesco and the Colombian Society
of Geology co-sponsored a meeting of experts in Bogota'
focusedon the subjectof "ErosionProcessesof the Northern
Andes," but with participantsand papers from all Andean
countries. The meeting emphasizedthe need for systematic

mountain hazards mapping for future land-use planning.

New forms of environmentalmanagement offer hope for
the future. The environmental diversity of mountains has
resulted in a wide range of income-producing and
subsistence strategies available to mountain people (Ives,
1979). Experience with afforestation, even in drier areas
of the Andes, shows a surprising potential for tree growth
and incidentally provides evidence that most of the
cordilleramust once have been naturallyforested.Another
major potential which has hardly begun to be developed
is hydroelectricpower, something that will be increasingly
welcome in an energy hungry world.
However, the green Andes of the north remain a fragile
environment, highly sensitive to ecologicaldisruption.And
with some of the highest ratesof naturalpopulationincrease
in the world, there have developed pressures on the land
that are unlikely to lessen, even with the twin safety valves
of outmigrationto the lowlands and to the cities (Eckholm,
1975).
New methods of land use and management need to be
directed towards long-term sustained yields. The agricultural and social systems that have developed on these steep
slopes have not always been well adapted to hillside farming. Rural development programmes have seldom given
the hillside farmersmuch attention, although many of the
basic tools are already available. Colombia, Ecuador, and
Venezuela each have active mapping programmesand upto-date national atlases (IGAC, 1977; IGM, 1978;
MARNR, 1979). An international symposium held in
December 1980 in Costa Rica on "Agricultural,Livestock,
and Forestry Production in the Hill Lands of Tropical
America" emphasized the need to study the land as
ecological and watershedsystems with the well-beingof the
people and their access to productive land a major
consideration (Novoa B. and Posner, 1981). Future successes hinge on recognitionof the need for multidisciplinary
and integrativeapproachesin understandingthe intricacies
of the constraints facing the people who work on the
Andean slopes (Glaser and Celecia, 1981).

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Geographische
Mitteilungen,Ergangzungsheft 262, pp. 281-310.

263

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Farming landscape south of Quito, Ecuador, altitude about 3,000 m. Photo by Gisbert Glaser.

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Landscapesouth of Otavalo, Ecuador,at about 3,400 m. This view shows the deep fluvialdissection
that has occurred in the ash and pyroclastic fill of the intermontane basins (Callejon Andina).
Photo by Gisbert Glaser.

264

MOUNTAIN

RESEARCH

AND

DEVELOPMENT

Ecuador's western range of the Andes. This view shows the characteristic dry watersheds of the

Cordillera Oxidentale on the road between Latacunga and Quevedo. Photo by Gisbert Glaser.