Satellite image of Mount Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina
Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain peak in the Americas (Western Hemisphere) at 22 830 feet (6958 meters) above sea level, is visible near the center of this low-oblique, northeast-looking photograph. Five major snow-covered peaks with summits exceeding 20 000 feet (6100 meters) rise along the north-south axis of the cohesive and massive structure of the Andes Mountains through this area of Argentina and Chile. Mount Aconcagua is the second snow-covered peak from the north. The narrow east-west valley immediately south of Mount Aconcagua contains a section of the Pan American Highway that connects Mendoza, Argentina, with Santiago, Chile. Mount Aconcagua and the snowcapped volcanic peak north of Mount Aconcagua lie within Argentina; the three snowcapped volcanic peaks south of Mount Aconcagua lie directly on the Chile-Argentina border. Several river basins are discernible on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains in west-central Argentina. Where sufficient water exists, mainly from snowmelt from the Andes Mountains, irrigated agriculture occurs in the otherwise dry valleys and basins east of the high Andes Mountains.
Image acquired April 1994.
