Cordillera Oriental (Bolivia) in the context of Cordillera Occidental (Bolivia)

The geography of Bolivia includes the Eastern Andes Mountain Range (also called the Cordillera Oriental) which bisects Bolivia roughly from north to south. To the east of that mountain chain are lowland plains of the Amazon Basin, and to the west is the Altiplano which is a highland plateau where Lake Titicaca is located. Bolivia's geography has features similar to those of Peru which abuts Bolivia's northwest border; like Bolivia, Peru is bisected from north to south by the Eastern Andes Mountains, and these two countries share Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake on Earth. Unlike Peru, however, Bolivia is one of the two landlocked countries in South America, the other being Paraguay, which is located along Bolivia's southeast border.

The Cordillera Occidental or Western Cordillera of Bolivia is part of the Andes (that is also part of the American Cordillera), a mountain range characterized by volcanic activity, making up the natural border with Chile and starting in the north with Juqhuri and ending in the south at the Licancabur volcano, which is on the southern limit of Bolivia with Chile. The border goes through the innominated point located at two-thirds of elevation of Licancabur's northeastern slope at the southwesternmost point of Bolivia at 22° 49' 41" south and 67° 52' 35" west. The climate of the region is cold and inadequate for animal and plant life. Its main feature is its ground, in which are large quantities of metallic minerals including gold, silver, copper, and others. The range consists of three sections:

• The northern section, in which you can find the highest peaks in Bolivia, tallest of which is the volcano Sajama at 6,542 meters. Sajama is perennially covered in snow. It contains the volcanoes Pomerape and Parinacota (called Payachata collectively), the latter being a dormant volcano with a cone of snow similar to Mount Fuji in Japan.
• The central section, situated between Uyuni and Coipasa. Its most prominent summit is the Ollagüe (Ullawi) volcano on the border with Chile.
• The southern section, characterized by volcanic activity and by having sandstorms and fog, taking into account Licancabur, which is 5,920 meters high (but only two-thirds of the northeastern slope of the volcano belong to Bolivia up to 5415 meters). The lakes Laguna Colorada and Laguna Verde can be found on Licancabur, so named because of their respective colors.

The geology of Bolivia comprises a variety of different lithologies as well as tectonic and sedimentary environments. On a synoptic scale, geological units coincide with topographical units. The country is divided into a mountainous western area affected by the subduction processes in the Pacific and an eastern lowlands of stable platforms and shields. The Bolivian Andes is divided into three main ranges; these are from west to east: the Cordillera Occidental that makes up the border to Chile and host several active volcanoes and geothermal areas, Cordillera Central (in some contexts also called Cordillera Oriental) once extensively mined for silver and tin and the relatively low Cordillera Oriental that rather than being a range by its own is the eastern continuation of the Central Cordillera as a fold and thrust belt. Between the Occidental and Central Cordillera the approximately 3,750-meter-high Altiplano high plateau extends. This basin hosts several freshwater lakes, including Lake Titicaca as well as salt-covered dry lakes that bring testimony of past climate changes and lake cycles. The eastern lowlands and sub-Andean zone in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija Departments was once an old Paleozoic sedimentary basin that hosts valuable hydrocarbon reserves. Further east close to the border with Brazil lies the Guaporé Shield, made up of stable Precambrian crystalline rock.

The Bolivian tin belt (Spanish: Cinturón estanifero boliviano, provincia estannifera boliviana) is a mineral-rich region in the Cordillera Oriental of Bolivia. Being a metallogenetic province the Bolivian tin belt is rich in tin, tungsten, silver and base metals. The Bolivian tin belt follows the same bend as the Bolivian orocline. The mineralizations of the belt were formed episodically beginning in the Triassic and with the youngest known mineralizations dating to the Miocene.

The mineral enrichment is a result of fluids expelled from peraluminous magmas. Peraluminous magmas in turn results from the partial melting (anatexis) of metasedimentary rock and gneiss in the continental crust. Analysis of trace elements in the igneous rocks formed by this magma suggests that some of its material derives from melting of a pelitic rock of Lower Paleozoic age. Besides crustal components magmas did also involve sources in the mantle. The formation of these magmas is thus a form of crustal recycling.

Chacaltaya (Mollo language for "bridge of winds" or "winds meeting point", Aymara for "cold road") is a mountain in the Cordillera Real, one of the mountain ranges of the Cordillera Oriental, itself a range of the Bolivian Andes. Its elevation is 5,421 meters (17,785 ft). Chacaltaya's glacier — which was as old as 18,000 years — had an area of 0.22 km (0.085 sq mi) in 1940, which had been reduced to 0.01 km (0.0039 sq mi) in 2007 and was completely gone by 2009. Half of the meltdown, as measured by volume, took place before 1980. The final meltdown after 1980, due to missing precipitation and the warm phase of El Niño, resulted in the glacier's disappearance in 2009. The glacier was located about 30 kilometers (19 mi) from La Paz, near Huayna Potosí mountain.

The Cordillera Central is a Bolivian mountain range that divides the three river basins in the country and also has the second highest peaks in Bolivia. It is rich in minerals and starts in the north with Chawpi Urqu and the three Palumanis that were in the south up to Zapaleri, forming a border with Chile and Argentina. The Cordillera Central is divided into three sections:

• The northern section or Cordillera Real, with Chawpi Urqu and Palumani, La Paz, Illimani, Illampu, Janq'u Uma, Mururata, and Huayna Potosí, with the latter six all being more than 6,000 meters high. This section is famous because the highest meteorological observatory in the world can be found on Chacaltaya. Some of the highest ski slopes in the world can be found here also.
• The central section contains Sumaq Urqu, with the Potosí mountain range and the Paso de Condor rail station, both situated at an elevation of 4,288 meters.
• The southern section is characterized by its high rate of mineralization and large deposits of tin. Its highest summit is Zapaleri on the border with Chile and Argentina.

The Cordillera Central lies between the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Oriental.