WHAT DOES CORDILLERA MEAN?

A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges. In the earth sciences, “cordillera” denotes a long, wide, and continuous system of more or less parallel mountain ranges, particularly the main mountain range at or near the coasts or borders of a large landmass. The origin and etymology of “cordillera” is a borrowing from Spanish. It is derived from an old Spanish word “cordilla”, a diminutive of “cuerda”, or “string, rope, cord” (Wikipedia) .

The first known use of the word dates back to 1704. It is used in physical geography to denote extensive mountain chains (The Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1918; British Dictionary, 2012; Meriam-Webster Dictionary, 2018; The American Heritage Science Dictionary, 2018; Wikipedia, 2018). The name was coined by the Spaniards to the mountains of the Andes in South America and was later extended to their northern continuation through Central America and Mexico, and finally to the entire mountain systems stretching up the western coast of the United States, British Columbia, and Alaska, and spreading eastward to include the Rocky Mountains (The Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1918).

Cordilleras occur worldwide. Cordillera Geo-Services occur worldwide, too.