The largest glaciers are in southern Chile. Others reach down to the Pacific Coast. Many of the glaciers in the southern Andes have cut deep valleys into the rocky coastline. These valleys go far below the water level and make the coast line ragged like that of Norway. Many deep inlets and rocky islands lie along the coast.
Rivers flow into the Pacific through gaps cut by glaciers on the west side of the Andes.
Many of the chief headstreams of the Amazon River rise on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Two other great rivers, the Parana and the Orinoco, also receive tributaries from the Andes. Rainfall is light on the western slopes of the Andes, except in the section north of the equator and in the southern third of Chile. Nature has played an unusual prank in the section between the two ranges of the central Andes in Bolivia and northern Argentina. Water from the high plateau does not flow to the Atlantic or the Pacific.