Geography of Trinidad and Tobago passage. Trinidad is traversed by three distinct mountain ranges that are a continuation of the Venezuelan coastal cordillera. The Northern Range, an outlier of the Andes Mountains of Venezuela, consists of rugged hills that parallel the coast. This range rises into two peaks. The highest, El Cerro del Aripo, is high; the other, El Tucuche, reaches . The Central Range extends diagonally across the island and is a low-lying range with swampy areas rising to rolling hills; its maximum elevation is . The Caroni Plain, composed of alluvial sediment, extends southward, separating the Northern Range and Central Range. The Southern
Ojos del Salado of Ojos del Salado was , but that was "simply [...] based on the altitude of the final camp, and the hours of ascent to the summit." In 1956, the first Chilean expedition led by the retired lieutenant René Gajardo measured the height of Ojos del Salado as with a pocket pressure altimeter. Apart from being an inexact method, the height shown by the altimeter was far too high as air pressure is generally lower in the afternoon, the time at which the team reached the summit. An expedition to the area in the 1990s claimed that nearby Monte Pissis