Cane Creek Mountains 300–350 million years ago during the formation and rifting of Pangaea. This earlier range is thought to have had peaks more than high, which would rival the Himalayas, the Andes, and the Alaska Range. However, erosion has worn this old mountain range down. The highest peaks of this old range are now found in the Appalachian Mountains on the eastern coast of North America and in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco in Africa. The heavily eroded hills of piedmont, including the Cane Creek Mountains, are remnants of the sizable mountain chain. The Cane Creek Mountains lie in the Carolina Slate
Ojos del Salado of the Nazca Plate beneath the South America Plate became increasingly shallower and this caused volcanism to shift from the Maricunga Belt to the Ojos del Salado region. The Paleozoic basement crops out only northwest of Nevado Tres Cruces. Other geologic units in the region are Oligocene sedimentary units and volcanic rocks ranging from Oligocene age to less than 1.5 million years old. The area is part of a tectonic boundary between a volcanically active region north of the boundary and a less volcanically active region south of the boundary, which is also characterized by geographical differences, e.g. the presence