In western Argentina, the Andes Mountains tower over the landscape. The four highest mountains in the Western Hemisphere are located in this region. One of them, Mount Aconcagua, reaches 22,834 feet above sea level. At the base of the Andes, the land becomes a rolling piedmont or foothills region.

There are tropical lowlands in parts of Paraguay and Argentina called the Gran Chaco. This area is made of a savannah and dense shrubbery. The temperature is mild and the climate doesn’t change very often. Rainfall in the summer is very heavy. In the winter, though, the soil is dry and erodes easily.

The pampas or grasslands of Argentina and Uruguay are well-known features of this region. The grasslands stretch for hundreds of miles and are home to gauchos or cowboys who used to famously herd cattle in the area. Today there are fewer gauchos working on the ranches in Argentina. Instead, the pampas land is used to produce a majority of the country’s grains and meat. These grasslands are warm in the summer and cold in the winter with occasionally violent thunderstorms known as pamperos.

South of the grasslands is Patagonia. This windswept plateau is dry and cold. It is mostly used for raising sheep. Mining is also common in Patagonia where there are deposits of oil and bauxite.